Enderle & Moll - Liaison
We drink from Baden two Spätburgunder Liaison from Enderle & Moll harvested in 2014 and 2015.
Rien sans peine - No pain, no gain is written on the labels of Sven Enderle and Florian Moll. The two make wines with a terroir focus in Baden. Minimal intervention in the cellar, gentle handling in the vineyard, no filtering, no fining, that naturally means a lot of manual work on the vines, a lot of hard work. Today we are drinking two vintages of the Pinot Noir Liaison from 2014 and 2015. The wine stands between the entry Pinot Noir and the big wines of the winery. The grapes come from different sites and different soils and are then aged in used wooden barrels. The two wines had some time on the bottle and we tasted them, like most of the wines here, over two days.
The 2014 smells intensely of red berries, red currant, sour cherry and raspberries are there, all of them not quite fresh anymore, more like they have been lying around a bit too long. With it comes undergrowth and wet leaves. In the mouth the wine has a nice structure and a fresh acidity. Very fine, elegant and soft on the palate. In between it appears almost perfumed in the nose. It is difficult for me to grasp what exactly is coming into the nose, but if you hold the glass a little further away, you get the feeling that there is almost something ethereal coming along with both vintages. The netter half fetches some liquorice as a comparison, I don’t like it, but the scent fits and we can definitely smell that in the wine. This shows very clearly how the perceived scent is dependent on one’s own taste and experience. In the course of the evening, the fruit becomes more intense, it becomes velvety and longer on the palate, with a little vanilla added.
On the second day, interestingly enough, there is more fruit in the nose, whereas I thought that the forest floor would be more intense. There is cherry, now mixed with some spices and the liquorice note. The tannins are finely integrated, which gives a wonderful mouthfeel. Velvety, soft and elegant.
Compared to the previous vintage, the 2015 has a tart nose, more strawberry than raspberry in the fruit and the wine appears denser. It is also denser on the palate and has more tannin. It is longer than the 2014 and actually feels a bit younger. In the nose there is something like roasted almonds and cherry juice. Later in the evening, there are aromas of hibiscus, the tannin is beautifully integrated, a few spices are included and with more air the plus in length becomes even clearer.
On the second day it still appears younger in direct comparison. More berries, fresher, but always a bit rougher in the tannin. More tension in the wine, the strawberry stays, maybe a little meat juice, raw steak, minimal acetone and a hint of smoke.
Both wines are elegant and well-balanced between fruit, tannin and acidity and both wines are a lot of fun in their current state and I think it is a very good time to open the bottles if you have them. Rien sans peine - The work has definitely paid off here.