Three Bottles Fußer
We drink a Deidesheimer Pinot Blanc from 2020, a Ruppertsberger Riesling 2020 and a Deidesheimer Pinot Noir 2018 from the Fußer Winery in the Palatinate.
When I happened to stumble across the wines from Weingut Fußer while shopping, I still had in the back of my mind that we had at least one of them once in the glass at the Wrint Flaschen Podcast. When I looked it up, I realized on the one hand that my memory had not deceived me, and on the other hand I was surprised to find out that it’s been almost three years since then. Crazy, how fast time flies. The other two wineries, Scheuermann and Seckinger, have found their way into the glass every now and then. Fußer somehow did not. So it’s time to change that. Georg and Martin Fußer, two brothers, have been transforming their parents’ farm from a grape producer to a self-marketer since 2006. Over the years, the variety of grapes was expanded and in 2011 they first switched to organic viticulture and then in 2012 to biodynamic viticulture and introduced the three-tier quality pyramid in the range. Today we reach three times exactly in the middle of the pyramid and drink three Ortswein wines. The Weissburgunder from 2020 comes from Deidesheim, the Riesling, also from 2020, from Ruppertsberg and the Spätburgunder 2018 again from Deidesheim.
The Weissburgunder smells of yellow fruit and some wood. There, the tonneaux and half-barrels in which it was aged already show on the nose. There is a lot of fruit from here, there are pears and quinces in the fragrance. Then in the mouth, a mix of creaminess, texture and the yellow fruit arrives. And clearly more draw than I would have expected from a Weissburgunder in the price range just over 10 euros. This has a little bit of edge and is still such a wine that you can just put anywhere, that everyone likes and that you want to drink yourself as well with a lot of fun. You should then just have more than one bottle with you.
A day later, the fruit is a bit more subtle and wood and creaminess predominate both in the nose and on the tongue. The acidity seems even more powerful and juicy than it already was on the first evening. This is really good.
The Riesling seems much more meager and cooler than the Weissburgunder, even though the Weissburgunder was already more on the cool side. So in direct comparison, the difference is very clear. There is a mixture of stone and lemon balm in the nose and a bright, fresh herbiness. The stone also arrives on the tongue and the acidity has decent bite. We really like this and it basically doesn’t change at all, even overnight. Somehow we drink relatively little Riesling lately and every time one shows up which is then as good as this, then you wonder why actually.
The Pinot Noir has a slight stink at the beginning. There’s a bit of lactic and a load of meat juice. When we ferment radishes, it smells a bit like that. That may be off-putting to some, but it’s somehow also quite exciting and then dissipates with air anyway. There is also red fruit and a very small bit of wood. The tannin is very soft on the tongue, velvety, the acidity grabs hold and there’s a bit of dirt and dinged strawberries.
Overnight the stinkiness recedes but never quite disappears. There’s a bit of smoke now, some rosemary and some red berries. The wine drinks really nicely. No idea why it took me almost three years to have this in my glass again, because the wines are all three really good and very affordable to boot. It won’t take that long again for a repeat.