The Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland is one of the 5 leadng wine guides in Germany.
The Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020 contains around 4000 wine recommendations from more than 500 producers, rated according to the 100-point system.
The Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020 was released in November 2019.
In the tasting team led by Falstaff Germany editor and editor-in-chief Ulrich Sautter, you find luminaries such as Master of Wine Anne Krebiehl from London and the top sommeliers Stéphane Gass ("Schwarzwaldstube", Baiersbronn), Gerhard Retter ("Fischerklause" Lütjensee, and "Cordo ", Berlin) and Oliver Donnecker (" Heimat ", Frankfurt).
Falstaff Collection of the Year: Weingut Clemens Busch
The Collection of the Year Award was given to Weingut Clemens Busch in Pünderich, Mosel.
Falstaff: The biodynamic family winery business scored 98 points for its 2018 Marienburg Riesling Goldkapsel Auslese, 97 points for its 2017 Marienburg Felsterrasse GG and three times 96 points for its 2017 Marienburg Raffes GG, 2017 Marienburg Fahrlay-Terrassen GG and 2017 Marienburg Rothenpfad GG.
"Busch's ability to produce seven plot-specific GGs from a single vineyard is unparalleled in German viticulture," says Ulrich Sautter. "And every single one of these wines is a special wine in its own right, and is brought to its optimum expression with great attention to detail, with viticultural precision and a sense of style".
Series of Posting
This is part of a series of postings with regard to the Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020:
Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020 - The Best (96 - 100 Points) German Wines
Collection of the Year: Weingut Clemens Busch - Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020, Germany
Germany's 31 Top Winemakers (With 5/5 Stars) - Falstaff WeinGuide Deutschland 2020
Best German Winemakers: Falstaff Wine Trophies 2020 - The Nominees
Best German Winemakers: Falstaff Wine Trophies 2020
Weingut Clemens Busch
Weingut Clemens Busch is one of the top producers in Germany. And not only that. In a region where the humidity and extremely steep vineyards make most wine makers to rely on some level of pesticide, Clemens Busch is 100% organic/biodynamic. And: In a region where noticeable residual sugar in the finished wine and low alcohol is the standard, Clemens Busch’s focus is on dry premium Rieslings that can compete with the best dry whites in the world. But Clemens Busch also produces some off-dry wines as well as powerfully complex, nobly sweet wines.
Weingut Clemens Busch is in Pünderich in the Mosel Valley, rather far down stream. The Busch family lives near the banks of the Mosel in a restored half- timbered house built in 1663. Because flooding can occur here, the vaulted cellar, built in the 1970s, lies nearby, on higher ground, at Clemens’s parents’ home.
The business has been run by Rita and Clemens Busch since 1986, with son Florian joining the team in 2008. Clemens is the fifth generation winemaker at this estate.
Vineyard area: 10 hectares
Annual production: 55,000 bottles
The winery is since 2007 member of the VDP (Association of German VDP), the 200 or so German elite winemakers.
Clemens Busch produces mainly dry wines but also fruity-sweet wines as well as noble-sweet wines.
Pündericher Marienburg
Most of the area under vines is situated in the Pündericher Marienburg vineyard which covers almost the entire hillside on the opposite side of the river from the village of Pünderich.
Until the wine law of 1971, the Pündericher Marienburg consisted of several small plots and not without good reason, because the wines grown in the different parts of today’s Marienburg vineyard are still very different. It is not only the different slate soils but also the special microclimates that play an important role here. To emphasize the specific differences that exist within the Pündericher Marienburg, the corresponding wines of Clemens Busch still bear the names of the old plots: Fahrlay and Fahrlay-Terrassen, Falkenlay and Raffes, as well as Rothenpfad and Felsterrasse.
Fahrlay and Fahrlay-Terrassen, directly across the river from the Busch’s house, consist mainly of blue slate, producing a Riesling with a particularly intensive mineral flavor and slightly salty notes in the finish.
Falkenlay, including the old-vine section called Raffes, is made up of grey slate, producing particularly creamy, fruit-driven Rieslings.
Wine Cellar
In the cellar, it is obvious that Clemens Busch does without high technology. After crushing, the grapes undergo skin contact and ferment spontaneously in both stainless steel and in oak Fuder (wooden casks of 1000 liters). The fermentation continues for a very long period of time (8-9 months, sometimes even 12). In addition to lees contact, Clemens Busch likes to do lees stirring to increase the wines’ fruitiness and richness. There are no additions to the wine (sugar for chaptalisation, acidity, etc) except for a very small amount of sulfur before bottling. As an exception, special yeast is used for noble-sweet wines where the sugar levels are sometimes so high that wild yeasts would not even begin to work.
Weingut Clemens Busch Wines in the USA
The Weingut Clemens Busch wines are widely available in the US. Louis/Dressner is the main American importer. In California, Dee Vine Wines (Fine German Wines) is the exclusive importer of Weingut Clemens Busch wines. I also found the Weingut Clemens Busch wines on the website of David Bowler Wine in New York.
Clemens Busch/ Bowler Wine
Bowler Wine: We are especially excited to be working with Clemens and Rita Busch, biodynamic practitioners in the Marienburg vineyards of Pünderich. Clemens is the fifth generation winemaker at this estate (all the previous ones were also named Clemens; ever the iconoclast, he named his son Florian) and he began using organic practices in 1984, more recently transitioning to biodynamics, for which he has become a role model and beacon of change among German winemakers.
Location is crucial to mention here. Pünderich lies essentially at the dividing line between the Middle and Lower Mosel, the wilder and more remote northern section of the Mosel river system. The geology here is unique, based on a volcanic formation hundreds of millions of years old, manifested in a long, undulating cliff face that is nothing short of epic. The three main colors of slate (blue, red and grey) are all found here, dominating different parcels along the slopes across the river from the village. In spite of multiple slate profiles and expositions varying throughout the area, the German government in 1971, in a bureaucratic decision of breathtaking short-sightedness, lumped all these parcels together under one vineyard name, the Marienburg. Furthermore, they expanded what was a 23-hectare geographically coherent site into a 90-hectare politically drawn one, which even includes a series of flat sites on the opposite side of the river! Clemens has devoted his career to rectifying this mistake, identifying the different terroirs of the original hillside on his labels by their historical names: Fahrlay, Falkenlay, Rothenpfad, Felsterrasse, and Raffes. He further delineates his wines by their soil type, using an ingenious method: the color of the capsule on the bottles indicates the type of slate (blue, gray or red) that dominates the source from which each wine comes.
Most of the wines at the Busch estate are vinified dry, and they are rich, complex and often powerful. They age very beautifully, gaining in complexity and texture. However, the sweet and noble sweet wines from the estate are also impressive, ranking among the finest wines made anywhere on the Mosel.
It is important to note there are not a lot of committed "natural" winemakers in Germany in the sense that we know it from France and elsewhere; Busch is considered by many to be THE master interpreter of that philosophy in Germany. In numerous ways, these are some of the most iconoclastic wines we have ever tasted.
schiller-wine: Related Postings
UPCOMING Tours/ Wine Dinners/ Tastings - Annette and Christian Schiller/ ombiasyPR & WineTours/ schiller-wine, Germany, France, USA (Issued: November 1, 2019)
Announcement: Upcoming ombiasy Wine Tours 2020 - (1) Alsace and Germany South, (2) Rhône Valley, (3) Bordeaux
Annual Riesling Party at the Schiller Residence in Washington DC, USA (2019)
Wine-pairing Dinner with Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, Mosel, at Panda Gourmet in Washington DC, USA
With Wine Maker Clemens Busch in Puenderich at his Winery in the Mosel Valley, Germany (2013)
Vineyard Tour and Wine Tasting at Weingut Clemens Busch– Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2014)
Tasting with Rita Busch at Weingut Clemens Busch in the Mosel Valley, Germany (2014)
German Star Winemaker Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch in the Mosel Valley, in Washington DC, USA (2014)
The Annual "Slaughterhouse" Riesling Feast in New York: Rieslingfeier 2017, USA
Post-Rieslingfeier and Pre-Big Glou Dinner with 3 Top Winemakers from Germany at BToo in Washington DC: Clemens Busch, Immich-Batterieberg and Koehler-Ruprecht, USA
The World of Riesling in Seattle - Fourth Riesling Rendezvous in Washington State, USA