Melsheimer - Steep Slope Riesling (5 April 2017)

Melsheimer - Steep Slope Riesling

April 5, 2017

Thorsten Melsheimer came to visit this week, bringing his current releases to taste. What could have been a brief, 20 minute tasting (five wines, pleasant conversation), turned into an hour-long lesson in wine/family history, biodynamic wine growing on some of the steepest vine-bearing slopes in the world, the effect of climate change on what was once an extremely marginal wine-growing region, and perhaps most important, the meaning of patience.

Thorsten's family has lived and made wine in the tiny Mosel village of Reil for 200 years. Thorsten is the fifth generation, and his 18 year-old son is already working with him, preparing to take over control in ten years or so. Fifty percent of their vineyards are classified as Steilstlage - the steepest 5% of all Mosel vineyards, receiving official certification as a "historical cultural landscape." They grow only Riesling - for now. Thorsten told me that he and his son just planted one-tenth of a hectare of Pinot Noir, ostensibly for their Sekt (20% of their production is sparkling), but he offered that by the time his son was ready to take over the climate could be warm enough to support growing Pinot Noir for red wine production in the Mosel. Their small herd of goats are a welcome addition to the family, emotionally. viticulturally (they provide excellent compost) and commercially (they're terrific lawn mowers!).

Melsheimer was certified organic in 1995, and, indicating even more complete dedication to preserving the estate for future generations, was certified biodynamic by Demeter in 2013. They are the first, perhaps still the only, Mosel winegrowers to be certified biodynamic. The process of achieving such a designation is long (at least three years) and expensive, requiring hard work and above all, patience.

Patience. Average primary fermentation times for most wineries, organic, biodynamic or commercial, run from a few days to several weeks - sometimes months. An average primary fermentation time at Melsheimer is about ten months - a couple of years is not out of the ordinary here. Thorsten believes that every fermentation vessel - he uses only large old foudre (1,000 liter capacity), so he has several different fermentations occurring at once, sometimes spanning more than one vintage - and the wine in that vessel, operates on its own schedule. His job is to monitor, not interfere. We tasted a wine - "Lentum" (lento = slow) - that fermented, non-stop, for three years. Three vintages; a long time, even for Melsheimer. What started in the barrel as a wine with a potential alcohol by volume (abv) of 12% ended up as a completely dry, stable wine of 10%abv. Thorsten explained that spontaneous, wild yeast fermentation accounts for a .5% reduction in abv, and another .5% is lost every year of fermentation in barrel. The result is a wine of great aromatic and flavor intensity combined with a composed, other-worldly, silken texture and balance. Extraordinary, unique dry Riesling. Imagine a Grand Cru Alsace Riesling, but with 10%abv instead of 13-14%. All Melsheimer wines have this remarkably complete sort of feel; intensity, persistence, yet near weightlessness.

Tasting six different expressions of Riesling made by Thorsten Melsheimer at one sitting is a study in nuance. Differences are caused by vineyard parcel - some are impossibly steep and shaded, others are fully exposed to sunlight; length of fermentation - 10 months to 3 years; and style - sekt (sparkling) to Spätlese (slightly sweet, requiring human intervention to stop the fermentation and leave natural residual sugar). One grape, one small estate, one family - six amazingly different wines. 

Thorsten is a man who understands and respects the fact that he is the current custodian of his family's land, He shows his respect by continuing to make Spätlese even though current fashion craves drier wine. This current craving for dry Riesling suits Thorsten. His evolution as a winegrower has resulted in naturally drier Riesling, so for now, all is good. Like every great winegrower, Thorsten Melsheimer has strong roots in tradition, but he's always tinkering, intently observing and prepared to let his wines tell him when to bottle something unique, such as Lentum. You might think growing only one grape variety in one tiny corner of a thousand year-old winegrowing region could be stifling - Melsheimer would argue otherwise.