Two Bottles Ziereisen
We drink two wines from the Ziereisen winery in Baden: The Weissburgunder Lügle from 2014 and the Spätburgunder Talrain from 2015.
This time the wines grow all they way in the southwest of Germany. Efringen-Kirchen is located in the border triangle between France, Switzerland and Germany. Actually, this year it would have been also the venue for the fourth Baden Landwein market, but Corona. We don’t let this distract us and drink the Landwein at home: Made by Hanspeter Ziereisen we have a Weissburgunder Lügle from 2014 and a Pinot Noir Talrain from 2015 in our glasses. Since 2006, the Ziereisen Winery has been producing only Landwein on 21 hectares around Efringen-Kirchen. A lot of manual work on the vines, little intervention in the cellar and as much time as the wines need to make sure they are of the highest quality. A wide range of wines is produced with a focus on Gutedel and Pinot Noir and today we have the entry into the higher qualities in the glass.
Let’s start with the Lügle Weissburgunder: The first impression is creamy, some wood influence, some yellow fruit, slightly overripe peach. In the mouth, the wine has a fine acidity, a gently hinted maturity and an enormous length. Really, it is enormous. From the first sip on, this simply remains on the tongue forever and at the very end, the wine delivers some spice before it leaves. That’s fun right after the cork is pulled. With air, honeydew melon with air-dried ham gets into your nose, a few pieces of mango in between and on your tongue the acidity picks up speed. The draught becomes stronger, the wine denser, more demanding, gripping and concentrated in its structure.
A night in the fridge is effective and brings the elements even closer together. The apparent maturity of the first sips can hardly be felt anymore. A buttery creaminess develops to freshness, along with the melon and ham, a few berries and some peach. Everything fits together, there is depth, there is freshness and then there is an empty glass.
The Talrain Pinot Noir has a more restrained start and needs a little time to get going. Wood, a bit rough for a short time, then comes cherry, dark berries, but no cassis. In the nose there is some smoke, in the mouth very clear and fresh from the first sip and here too, like the Pinot Blanc, the structure comes out the back, although more closed and buttoned up. Time should help here. As expected it does and the Talrain starts to open up. A bit of green forest soil, a bit of undergrowth, the tannins are clear but fit well, give a framework for the rest. There is cherry with vanilla, the berries again, rather cool, a bit of red rose hip, slim, focused.
On the second evening, someone dumped maraschino cherry in the undergrowth, but sugar-free and only in the fragrance. The fruit appears overall even clearer, more intense on the nose. The tannin is still noticeable, but does the wine good as it is. Just like the cherry. It appears very young, very fresh, but not too young. I think that this is in a very nice state to drink right now. And if you want to wait, it will certainly continue to grow in quality for quite a while from here.