Last evening I had the good fortune to attend a dinner hosted by Table & Vine, featuring the wines of the J. J. Prüm as presented by Dr. Katharina Prüm. The dinner was at The Federal in Agawam, Massachusetts, and featured some outstanding food that was delicious in its own right and complimented the wines.
While we were all gathering guests were served the 2006 Bassermann-Jordan Riesling Trocken (Pfalz) as an aperitif. It was a refreshing, citrus-laced wine with a fine balance between its fruit and acidity. Interestingly enough I was involved in a conversation about the Prüm estate, and whether or not they make any trocken wines. Dr. Prüm indicated that they did, but that they were not for sale in the USA. Valckenberg President Wilhelm Steifensand indicated that he preferred to not bring the trockens to the US market, as it might cause confusion. More convincingly, he laid out a case that trocken is not the style primarily suited to the Mosel, and that it’s better to let those regions more conducive to trocken (e.g. Pfalz, Baden, Franken) carry the torch for dry wines. Even at a very low ($14.99) price point, the Bassermann-Jordan made his case.
Seated for dinner (luckily for me, next to Dr. Prüm herself, as she is an engaging and eloquent dinner companion), we moved on to the first course and set of wines.
Wild asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with fried duck egg & celery greens
2004 J. J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett
2002 J. J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett
I was not prepared for how well the food went with the first two wines. It was a delightful match. The 2004 showed all the freshness and high-toned lemon, apple and slate that one would expect from the vintage, vineyard and estate, while the 2002 was just starting to show a creamy and smoky edge on the fringes of very similar apple and slate elements. Both wines were fine demonstrations of the genre (I won’t say pradikat) of kabinett. The 2004 is a mere baby compared to the 2002, yet the 2002 has 10-15 more years ahead of it (Dr. Prüm mentioned that the family will typically drink a bottle of 20-25 year old kabinett at the start of their meals).
On the heels of the fine 2004/2002 pairing we discussed kabinett, and the prospects for the 2007 vintage. Dr. Prüm said that there will “finally” be a vineyard designated kabinett again in 2007 after no such bottling in 2005 or 2006. She was very pleased with this, but also with the decision of the family to not release supersized bottlings (e.g. auslese declassified to kabinett) in vintages which do not yield appropriate kabinett wine. There was general acknowledgement around the table that the German wine laws are unlikely to change, but also that selling auslese with a kabinett label was not good for German wine as a whole.
Our second course and second set of wines then arrived:
Tuna tartare with avocado, soy ginger dressing and daikon radish
2005 J. J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese
2006 J. J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese
Again a delicious match, as the salty, spicy tuna paired perfectly with the richness of both the 2005 and 2006. After a quick taste of each wine I decided to focus on one at a time, as the sheer richness and weight of the 2006 Auslese overwhelmed the 2005 Spätlese. Taken separately the 2005 showed some site-typical apple and lemon, but more peach and tropical fruit, while the 2006 ran to vanilla, honey and spice with both having a solid, if yet mostly hidden, slate underpinning. Balance was key in both wines, and in fact all night, as no single element really stood out in any wine, but rather each presented itself as a whole, integrated, balanced gem.
Our second course conversation centered on the current flurbereinigung in the Wehlener Sonnenuhr. For those not familiar with the term, it is a process whereby vineyards are “reorganized” to add access roads and consolidate estate’s parcels into larger blocks to permit easier work. I questioned Dr. Prüm on the removal of old vines (a terrible thought) in the process, and she indicated that many parcels of old vines are being maintained even as new vineyard access roads are added. One of the very interesting aspects of the work being done in the site is that she has been able to examine the roots of vines near road cuts, and seen roots that go 3-4 meters deep. This led into our discussion of the 2003 Prüm wines, a collection I found (and continue to find) to be excellent and ageworthy. Dr. Prüm’s comments were that the deep roots and good water source in the Wehlener Sonnenuhr allowed the vines to prosper in 2003 rather than wilt/shut down as they did in some other sites. She compared 2003 to 1959 for their wines, and also indicated that she enjoys serving the 2003s blind alongside the 2005s to stump tasters.
We also had a brief discussion regarding the transfer of the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr “Rotlay” parcel to Selbach-Oster during that site’s flurbereinigung (parcels do get swapped, but this is arranged by the government, and not the estates), and the Prüm family’s decision to drop the fight to maintain ownership of the parcel. Katharina Prüm and Johannes Selbach still happily wave to each other as they pass each other in airplanes headed opposite ways across the ocean (Johannes Selbach travels even more than Dr. Prüm).
Our third course was very rich, and matched up with two equally rich wines:
Duck confit on Parmigiano risotto with a red wine & foie gras reduction
2005 J. J. Prüm Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese
2005 J. J. Prüm Bernkastekler Badstube Riesling Auslese
This was the best matched pair of wines, as they had similar weight, though different flavor profiles, the Zeltinger showing more citrus and the Bernkasteler more tropical notes. Each was elegant, yet had sufficient depth (and cut) to pair with the risotto and foie gras sauce. Both wines have years to go before they even reveal their full personalities much less gain in aged complexity and nuance. Right now they are all about fruit and flawless balance.
I asked Dr. Prüm about the family’s holdings in the Bernkasteler Badstube. I indictaed that I had been very pleased with recent Prüm wines from the site, and wondered which parcels within the Badstube were responsible for the fine 2003 and 2005 Auslesen. She said that they have and use holdings “all over the Badstube.” She went on to say that despite its classification, the Badstube “is not really like a grosslage (collection of sites in a local area), but more like an einzellage (single vineyard), as it doesn’t cover a wide area of both good and bad land.” Dr. Prüm and I agreed that the Badstube is a wonderful site which makes some very great wines (in the right hands).
Our final course was served with generous pours (!) of two delicious and very different wines:
Elderflower semifreddo with rhubarb compote
2002 J. J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Gold Kapsule
2006 J. J. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese Gold Kapsule
I can confidently say that the 2006 Himmelreich was the finest dessert/auslese match I have ever had, with the richness and spice of the wine complimenting the semifreddo as the rhubarb kept the dessert from being too sweet and overwhelming the wine. The 2002, while delicious, was outclassed in this pairing, as the 2006 made it seem more like kabinett or spätlese than auslese gold capsule. I settled for drinking the 2006 with the dessert and having the 2002 after my coffee where it came alive in layers of all the typical apple, vanilla, lemon cream and slate aspects that the Wehlener Sonnenuhr gives so well. But oh that 2006!
As we lingered over dessert, Wilhelm Steifensand struck up a conversation on politics (always fun to do when one is in Massachusetts), and I listened to the various strains regarding gold capsules (ugh – that again), AP numbers (no I didn’t write them down, as I agree with Dr. Prüm that they don’t make that much difference in most cases), and the benefits of visiting Nantucket in the off-season. It had been a lovely evening.
