Two Bottles Achenbach
We are drinking a bottle of Riesling 2023 and a Pinot Noir from 2021 from the Heerkretz vineyard site, produced by Weingut Achenbach.
You don’t pay attention for a moment and bam, it’s almost Christmas. It probably wasn’t very contemplative when the package of these bottles made very quick acquaintance with a hard surface. The first glass breakage on the way to us in, I don’t know exactly, six years or so. And the first that actually gets delivered. That’s a rate we probably shouldn’t complain about. And considering that a bottle of red wine was distributed in the twelve-bottle box and the remaining bottles were subsequently wrapped in seven hundred layers of packing tape by the parcel service, it didn’t look that bad. The two bottles from the Heerkretz were practically unscathed. And we’ll take this exit ramp directly, because today again we’re drinking wines that we discovered at the Maxime Open in summer. And unlike last time, I only had to orient myself briefly when searching for Wonsheim, because it’s practically right next to Siefersheim and I know quite well where that is. Frank and Constanza Achenbach with family cultivate a little over 20 hectares here in Rheinhessen and a small part of it in the Heerkretz. We’ve known that the site is suitable for great Riesling and Pinot Noir at least since Wagner-Stempel, and I already liked the Heerkretz Riesling from Achenbachs in the summer. Only consistent to try exactly that now. The big surprise, which doesn’t appear here for reasons, is happening at the other end of the quality pyramid. Huxelrebe Spätlese sweet. If I’m correctly informed, a reorder should be on its way to Mom soon. A win-win discovery so to speak.
It’s your own fault if you let Riesling out of the bottle so young. 2023 felt like it was just yesterday and we notice that very quickly after unscrewing. The wine is hand-picked on steep slopes, fermented with its own yeasts and aged in stainless steel. At least I had a certain premonition that this could happen and therefore opened the bottle a day earlier than planned. A good choice. It’s very yeasty with a small stinker somewhere between reductive flint, smoke and dark fruit. And it has tension. It’s so juicy with crisp green apple and then really a lot of texture afterwards. Since every sip still feels very much like potential, the wine goes back into the cooling.
And fortunately, that helps. The Riesling is now clearer on the nose, stonier, the yeast has retreated far into the background. The pull remains, now accompanied by minerality on the tongue. There’s lime and the dark memory of a tequila shot. At least the lemon-salt rim part of it. This is really good and because we’re really interested in the further development now, about a glass is allowed to stay overnight again. The development continues exactly like this. It becomes more open and at the same time stonier. If you have a bottle of this at home or are thinking about having a bottle of this at home soon, I can really only recommend opening it a day earlier or better yet, forgetting that you bought the wine at all for a few years. The wine will probably be very grateful. With a lot of air though, it’s already great now.
The Pinot from 2021 already has a two-year head start, even if it spent most of it in the barrel. The Pinot Noir spends 30 months in small oak barrels before it’s bottled. And the wine can’t and doesn’t want to hide that. It first smells intensely of cherry and then more and more wood and spice come in, attacking the fruit, followed by some marzipan. It’s a bit of a powerhouse in the nose, but actually only in the nose. It drinks really juicy with nice acidity and significantly less tannin than I expected. More spice and structure than furred tongue and a cherry that boldly reclaims its place disputed in the aroma. It’s not the elegant, very fine blade, but it’s somehow really beautiful. Especially the cherry that completely claws into the middle of the tongue and doesn’t let itself be driven away by the tannin. That’s really something.
The Pinot likes the night in the fridge less than the Riesling. It becomes rougher, the fruit recedes even more when smelling, it becomes scrubby. I miss the harmony, but the better half now totally celebrates it like this. It’s leaner, more focused, but, for me, just not as beautiful anymore. The differences at the table were resolved on the third evening. It becomes rounder, more harmonious and balanced again. Fruit and spice find each other again. That’s why I’m not quite sure what to recommend here. Drinking immediately or giving it a lot of air and time could both be an option, depending on personal taste. For myself, I’m happy that I like another winery at home just as much as on the road. Because although I’ve been doing this for a few years now, the danger of the out-of-home rose-colored glasses, or at least the fear of it, remains. It is indeed something different to rinse tasting glass after tasting glass through your teeth and then spit it out, or to really have time for a bottle at home.