Pollux Membership April 2024: Truth In Advertising and What We Want, What We Really Really Want

An aerial view of the Knevitz vineyards in the Rheinhessen, Germany.

“Truth In Advertising”

Knevitz Riesling Trocken, Rheinhessen, Germany 2022

“An Estate by the Sea”. This phrase flashing across my desktop as I research April’s Pollux white wine feature has me staring at the computer. Am I too tired to be writing this? Did I accidentally pour myself more than 3oz of this wine for tasting note purposes? Because the last time I checked (reaches for wine maps), the region of Rheinhessen in Germany was pretty darned landlocked. Heck, the small hamlet of Appenheim in Rheinhessen’s northwest corner, which hosts the winery in question, is a good 5 miles from the nearest shore of the Rhine RIVER, let alone an ocean’s waves.

So, what gives? Do I have to involve the lawyers that I don’t have (except for the one I’m married to, of course) and open an inquiry into false advertising? As it turns out, I can set my worries (and quill and ink cease-and-desist order) aside, for the Knevitz family’s estate does indeed sit upon the sea. There’s just a small matter of time that has passed since that statement was literally accurate, but who’s quibbling about 40 million years, anyway?

The signature limestone soil of Appenheim, the home village of Knevitz.

It was a bit before my time, mind you, but research does prove that Appenheim, a quaint community of 1,400 people located less than 200 meters above sea level, was in fact a part of the Tertiary Sea, and this oceanic influence left its indelible mark on the terroir of this less-celebrated area of Rheinhessen. While there are certainly areas more famous in the region (Oppenheim/Nierstein to the east, the environs of Worms to the south), few sport the specific gift bestowed upon Appenheim-an ancient coral reef, whose influence still resonates today in the extremely high limestone content of the soil. As with other famous winegrowing areas, white grapevines are superbly well-suited to limestone’s presence, and the pervasive feeling of textural tension and nervy acidity is crucial to Appenheim’s (the suffix “heim”, meaning “home”, is found appended to most every town in the area) expression of Germany’s varietal soul, Riesling. Despite my inclination towards winemakers with non-interventionist tendencies, this type of beautifully dry Riesling, with a nose of wet stone and lime juice as the primary fruit, doesn’t just make itself: it takes winemakers with passion for traditional techniques, and not the bulk-production mentality that has in the past defined the Rheinhessen, Germany’s most prolific wine-producing region. Luckily, that trend is being bucked by a generation of younger, more globally-minded vineyard owners and winemakers; enter this month’s Knevitz family, who delicious offerings are new to the US and not normally stocked in Virginia.

The youthful trio at the center of Knevitz’s (and Appenheim’s, and dare I say the Rheinhessen’s) winemaking revolution: winemaker Tobias, his wife Corina, and brother Bjorn.

An Appenheim winemaking fixture since the 19th century, the Knevitz family estate was constructed by current winemaker Tobias’s grandparents, Erwin and Magdalena. Tobias’ father Gerold was the first to estate bottle their own production in 1976, and in 2007, Tobias took over at the helm of a property that had seen its tiny 5 hectares of holdings grow to 15 (that number has now increased to 25). Joined by his wife Corina and brother Bjorn, the Knevitz family organically farms and produces their wines with a forward-thinking mindset in terms of marketing and exposure, but one that mines their family’s history in terms of production. Six different single vineyard sites are farmed, including the Huntertgulden vineyard, first mentioned on record in the 12th century and one of the most limestone-rich plots in all of Germany. The pastiche of these estate sites that render the Riesling Trocken 2022 come together with an ease that belies the challenge of blending different terroirs: fermentation with native yeasts and a decision to mature the juice in both stainless steel and traditional oak barrels give the Trocken a rounder, more expansive mouthfeel whilst retaining the acidity spurred on by the coral reef’s trademark limestone. The soil’s presence has even encouraged Tobias, ever-mindful of limestone’s success in Burgundy, to plant Chardonnay, with his family’s production of that grape garnering mention in Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson’s latest World Atlas of Wine. Featuring the Knevitz wines on their first-ever shipment to the US has me again feeling like I’ve taken and eaten from the cookie jar with nary a word from an authority figure; enjoying a glass of the Riesling Trocken, I suddenly realize that this “Estate by the Sea” could tell me anything and I’d be an ardent believer-D.

Knevitz Riesling Trocken, Rheinhessen 2022

Country of Origin: Germany.

Places and People: The Knevitz family has made wine in the small town of Appenheim in the Rheinhessen region of Germany since the 19th century. A formal wine estate was constructed by Erwin and Magdalena Knevitz in the mid-20th, with their son Gerold bottling the first estate wines in 1976. Gerold’s son Tobias took the mantle from his father 17 years ago, and today is joined by wife Corina and brother Bjorn to manage the winery’s 25 hectares of vines (their hard work resulted in an invitation to join Germany’s VdP quality system in 2022). Appenheim exists on the remnants of a coral reef dating to the Tertiary Sea 40 million years ago, and its vineyards boast some of the highest limestone soil content in Germany. The 2022 Trocken is an amalgamation of several of the family’s six single vineyards. “Trocken” is German for “dry”, so for those of you with a stigma for Riesling, fear not- this wine brings pleasure, just not residual sugar.

Soil: The famed Appenheim limestone (white and red), along with clay, marl, and iron.

Grape Varieties: 100% Riesling.

Winemaking: The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented spontaneously with natural yeasts. Farming is practicing organic.

Aging: The 2022 Trocken Riesling is matured in both stainless steel and traditional oak barrels (all used).

Flavors and Foods: I have made this confession previously, but risking my “Geeky Somm” status, I’ll say it again: Riesling is almost never my go-to white varietal, but with wines like the Knevitz being brought to market, I may change my ways. The secret to the 2022 Trocken’s success is in its balance: the overt acidity and mineral non-fruit notes that scream “Riesling” is enveloped in a juicier texture. Look for acacia honey, key lime, and wet rock on the nose; the palate is really pleasurable, with the lime juice being the primary fruit along with Asian pear and a hint of Yuzu. Non-fruit notes also deal in citrus (lemon thyme, the acacia blossom again). The acidity is in balance, but the fresh, non-reductive style of winemaking will still bring a touch of spritz to the palate’s texture. The Knevitz, even vinified to dryness, is still a productive pairing with Asian cuisine (less spicy Chinese dishes, Vermicelli with pork or shrimp), and its body weight (Rheinhessen Rieslings are, in general, a little more rounded than examples from the Mosel) lends itself to white meats and flaky, mild fish. The thought of delicious sashimi, particularly the sweetness of scallop and the oily texture of salmon, also has me salivating.

Service and Cellar: The Knevitz Riesling Trocken’s acidity does exhibit the capacity to age, but this estate wine should be enjoyed in the 2 years when you are able to revel in its crystalline freshness. The danger of serving any high-acid wine on the warmer edge of the white cellar spectrum is rendering that acidity too abrasive; fear not with the Knevitz. My tasting revealed a good balance as the wine warmed to 50-52 degrees F, and the Trocken 2022’s fruit and herb notes were all the better for it.

Demeter-certified biodynamic winemaker Frank John in his cellar.

“What We Want, What We Really Really Want”

Frank John Pinot Noir “Kalkstein”, Pfalz, Germany 2017

Pinot Noir is a problem. A good one, I’ll grant you, but a conundrum just the same. The Catch-22 of having one of the world’s most beloved and renowned grapes also standing proudly as one of the most notoriously difficult when it comes to growing, ripening, disease prevention-well, really anything involving the winegrowing and winemaking processes-is an excellent story in perseverance, a hallmark of its rarity, or a giant pain in the rear, depending on your point of view.

I will say, however, that almost as problematic as Pinot Noir is, we certainly don’t show it any love in return; judging by wine tastings that I do with larger groups or my work on restaurant floors, I don’t think Pinot Noir could possibly posesss enough scratches to satisfy the litany of itches we seek from it.

Having the most famously finicky grape varietal endure our endlessly epic expectations seems like poetic justice in theory, but in practice all it accomplishes is muddying our understanding of what we really want when someone puts a glass of Pinot Noir in front of us. Is a Pinot supposed to show off gobs of ripe red fruits, as it does in most California and some New Zealand examples, or the earthy tannic structure that it can attain in some of the strongest bottles from France’s Burgundy? Should it be teeming with crackling acidity, as it can show in Northern Italy or, as is the case in Oregon, attempting to mimic Burgundy’s lightness but with its own freshness of fruit?

I think the inherent dilemma in trying to pinpoint Pinot is precisely the grape’s versatility; whereas it’s cool-climate favoring peculiarities are universal, the end results are quite different, and place, soil, clonal selection (a big one that we don’t spend as much time as we should in wine education with consumers), and of course choices in farming and vinification are all huge influences. These factors are obviously important with any wine but seem to yield an even more varied spectrum of flavors and structure when it comes to Pinot. And to further complicate matters, I haven’t even mentioned the country that, perhaps surprisingly to some, contains the third-largest amount of Pinot Noir vines in the world: Germany.

The bucolic rows of the vineyards in the Pfalz, Germany.

Germany’s approximately 30,000 acres of Pinot Noir vines planted, while less than half of the US and a little more than 1/3 that of France, is still comfortably ahead of countries that seem to be more identified with the grape (New Zealand, for example). So why isn’t Germany identified as a Pinot powerhouse? One simple reason could be that the national identity of German wine is firmly tethered to the noble empire of Riesling. Another is more logistical: hardly any of Germany’s Pinot Noir is exported, due to its demand in-house (I know other red varietals are planted in Germany, but really, would you choose Dornfelder over Pinot Noir if you were settled into a cozy weinbar? I thought not).

When small quantities of the grape do escape Deutschland (you Pollux members are about to enjoy the final 16 bottles in market of this German Pinot, for example), bound for other markets, what sets them apart? The first separator is clonal selection (I told you we’d get to it). Grape clones are cuttings taken from existing plants and grafted onto a separate rootstock, thus “creating” a new type of vine. Reinforcing our original predicament of what we truly desire from Pinot Noir, there are more distinct clonal varieties of Pinot Noir than any other red grape, and German winemakers can make use of a large amount of indigenous clonal families, notably Geisenheim and Freiburg. In a 2021 Forbes interview, German Master of Wine Romana Echensperger asserts that for her, German Pinot clones generally have more upfront red fruit than their French counterparts, with slightly higher levels of acidity and less tannins. Echensperger’s belief that in the northerly German climate it is necessary to formulate a blend of different clones reflects what I have been told by several Master Sommeliers-the art of blending Pinot clones or cultivating a variety of them on your estate is not unlike blending reserve lots of Champagne in order to cultivate a “house style”.

The other key difference-maker for German Pinot Noir: soil diversity. Germany has Pinot Noir planted on the largest amount of differing soil types of any Pinot-producing nation. From the volcanic earth and slate found in the northwest Ahr region to the sedimentary marine in Baden on the Franco-Swiss border, Pinot in Germany has a slew of expressions depending on what it’s planted on. When it comes to soil, however, this month’s Pollux feature takes its cues from a well-established Pinot companion: limestone.

Ripened Pinot Noir grapes on the vine in the Pfalz.

Situated between the Rhine River to the east and the Haardt mountains to the west (the German continuation of France’s Vosges range), the Pfalz would seemingly be a contradictory location for some of Germany’s finest Pinot Noir-after all, the Pfalz sports a high percentage of Riesling plantings. However, from the mid-2000s onward, the Pfalz has seen an incredibly varied collection of grapes grown (sort of like the Loire Valley of Germany, if only in its diversity of wines)-it’s drier, sunnier climate has only continued to allow for better ripening, of red wines in particular. Tellingly, the Pfalz region’s longer growing season has resulted in a notable lack of sweet bottlings: the region’s production is now close to 75 percent dry table wines. Aiding this long period of hang time are classic limestone soils that aid both Riesling and Pinot Noir’s march to acidity and allow for impeccable balance. Of course, vineyard and cellar work are the final pieces to this Pinot puzzle, and both are carried out with talent and restraint by winemaker Frank John.

With vineyards situatied along the edge of Pfalz’s so-called Haardtrand and only 62 miles from France’s great Alsace capital, Strasbourg, the wines of Frank John have a distinctively Francophile take, filtered through an equally present German sense of exacting commitment to processes-in John’s case, that is the art of biodynamic winemaking. With very little intervention and hand-harvested grapes picked according to the biodynamic calendar (the estate’s wines are Demeter certified), the estate’s six wines (exactly one dry Riesling and Pinot Noir each, along with four sparkling bottlings) make use of the family’s hands-on experience at their estate. The chalky, limestone soil of Pfalz is put to excellent use with the bone-dry Pinot Noir “Kalkstein” (“limestone”), bottled with less than 1 gram/liter of residual sugar. The unfined, unfiltered Pinot Noir, aged for two years in neutral oak, combines the freshness of fruit that German Pinot clones can acheive with a distinctly Burgundian earthiness and savory character. A limited production (Frank John’s family farm is just a tiny 3 hectares of vineyards) means that an online search for the wine often proves fruitless, with “out of stock” adorning many websites. The winery’s notoriety as a standout Pinot producer has also pushed its prices skyward; the Pinot Noir typically retails for around $70, but thanks to a great relationship with the VA importer/distributor, I have been able to introduce you to this German expression of one of our favorite grapes at the Pollux Member price. I am thrilled to feature Frank John Pinot Noir “Kalkstein” this April; a glass of which is definitely what I want from this singular grape-D.

Frank John Pinot Noir “Kalkstein”, Pfalz 2018

Country of Origin: Germany.

Places and People: Frank John has rapidly become a sage of his home region of Pfalz. Working from a tiny 3 hectare estate in the small town of Neustadt (east of Heidelberg, southeast of Mannheim, and only an hour’s drive from the Alsace capital of Strasbourg in France), Frank John’s wines have become highly sought-after by fans of both traditional and biodynamic winemaking. Manual harvest and dry farming have exclusivity in the production of the property’s annual production, which numbers just 2,000 cases for the entirety of their six cuvees. The vineyard for the “Kalkstein” (“Limestone”) Pinot Noir features vines averaging 30 years of age.

Soil: Limestone.

Grape Varieties: 100% Pinot Noir.

Winemaking: Hand-harvested in accordance with the biodynamic calendar (the winery is Demeter certified), the Pinot Noir for the 2018 “Kalkstein” is fermented on the skins using solely indigenous yeasts. Full malolactic fermentation occurs before aging.

Aging: The 2018 “Kalkstein” Pinot Noir rests after fermentation for two years in both 225 and 500 liter French oak barrels, the majority of which are used (the family only uses new barrels when purchase of them is necessary to replenish supply). The “Kalkstein” is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Flavors and Foods: The 2018 Frank John Pinot Noir “Kalkstein” exhibits a “Burgundy by way of the Pfalz” character. Six years in bottle on, the wine doesn’t have the freshness of fruit that often characterizes German Pinot clones, but there is still plenty of bright cherry, strawberry, and wild raspberry to be had. The overall strength of the wine, however, are its non-fruit elements (a nose of leather, sage, and thyme, with palate notes of sage, wild black rice, porcini mushrooms, and roasted game) and its texture (the Frank John borders on medium+ tannin levels, with medium-plus acidity and alcohol that is quite mild at 12.5%). Pork loin with wild rice, stuffed portabella mushrooms, and rabbit with spaetzle in a whole-grain mustard sauce are just a few ideas for this versatile bottle of wine.

Service and Cellar: The Frank John will be ideal served at red cellar temperature (56-62 degrees F). The red fruits of the 2018 may soften over the next 2-4 years, but they don’t taste as though they’ll expand either, so although I don’t expect a sharp falling off in that period between now and 2028, I would recommend enjoying this bottle in 2024.