Three Bottles Eppelmann
We are drinking Chardonnay twice and one bottle of bubbles from Weingut Eppelmann. One is a Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature 2020, and without bubbles we have Terra F and Alte Reben (Old Vines), both from 2022.
At events like the Maxime Open, there are outstandingly beautiful wineries. But within the wineries, there are also relatively normal places and really beautiful places for the winemakers’ stands. I actually have no idea how it’s decided who should or may stand where. Maybe a coin is tossed, or they shoot at targets with sabered corks. However it’s done, Eppelmann had luck or good aim, because it doesn’t get much nicer than there in the brick cellar of Weingut Gröhl. The Eppelmanns started bottling and marketing their own wine in the 1950s. Meanwhile, cultivation has been converted to organic farming and all generations of the family are involved in the business. Corinna Eppelmann, part of the youngest generation at the winery, stood behind the counter and offered Pinot and Chardonnay in three quality levels each. At least officially according to the menu. Unofficially, there were also bubbles and even more single-vineyard wines. And all of it was good, very good even, so good that I ordered and sparkling wine as well as two variants of Chardonnay are now allowed to end the little summer review. Hopefully they’ll live up to what they promised there. We’re drinking a Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature vintage sparkling wine from 2020. Made from Pinot Blanc, aged in large oak barrels, bottled in 2021, yeast plug removed in 2024 and with two and a half grams of remaining sugar. Also a Chardonnay Terra F 2022, the estate Chardonnay, named after Terra Frusca, the soil type on which it grows. Spontaneously fermented in wood and then matured on the lees for 16 months. The Alte Reben (old vines), same year, are treated exactly the same, but are harvested, as the name suggests, from older vine parcels. A small vine age vertical, at least if you disregard the certainly different microclimate.
The bubbles start totally straight in the nose, but then it slowly gets an increasingly finer fruit added to it. Behind that, you find a bit of fine pastry. And that’s not because the better half has turned five blocks of butter into cookies and biscuits over the last days, it’s more due to the lees aging. When drinking, it foams quite strongly at first and then settles on the tongue for a really long time. Each sip makes the wine juicier and it almost feels a bit like citrus juice in between. It’s dry, there’s pome fruit and juiciness. That’s why this bottle only survives one evening and not even that completely.
I’m considering how to incorporate a “Terra F” wordplay and discard the idea after massive eye-rolling on the opposite side of the table, wouldn’t have worked in english anyway. Unlike the sparkling wine, the Chardonnay seems totally fruity when first smelling it. But that disappears quickly again and spicier notes take over. Some puffed grain, mirabelle, pome fruit. Then surprisingly a lot of acidity marches across the tongue, which doesn’t pull but feels surprisingly smooth. On the edges of the tongue, the spice and a bit of the wood also assert themselves here. I liked it in the wine cellar, I like it here too.
Not much changes overnight. A tick more spice when drinking perhaps. It’s still very tasty, but in this special parallel constellation, the wine is also a little bit more baseline than independent pleasure. And that’s certainly unfair to it, because it doesn’t need the comparison, because the bar is set high, but today this one bottle simply has to live with it.
As in summer, the Old Vines smell quite similar at first, just simply more of everything. When drinking, it’s different, it’s a completely different wine. It’s darker in aroma, more intense but at the same time much finer and longer. Somehow denser, more viscous and the acidity, which was so clear in the Terra F, is probably not that far away analytically here, I don’t know the values, but sensorially it’s a big difference. The spice, the fine fruit and minerality are much more pronounced.
And here, something really happens overnight. The Chardonnay becomes even finer and more elegant. There’s a very fine structure, some wood and puffed grain in the nose. But what doesn’t sound so differently after all, when drinking it has much more substance behind it, offers much more space to smell through. The acidity has now developed quite a decent pull, but still doesn’t stand in the foreground but alongside a lot of yellow apple and the structure. It’s not so easy to say why I like this so much better in direct comparison and as already written, I somehow feel sorry for the estate wine. It’s really beautiful, the difference objectively maybe not so big, but the Old Vines are just a good portion more beautiful right now in this moment. And with that, I’m pretty happy to conclude the summer review of the Maxime Open with these three bottles. At least for now.