The Diel 2007 Pinot Noir Cuvee Caroline represents a project that Armin Diel has babied from its inception but that is now receiving even more meticulous attention on the watch of its namesake. This 2007 was destemmed entirely by hand so as to retain a maximum of berries intact. Bright cherry fruit is tinged with the cyanic bitterness of fruit pit and the toast, resin, and spice of (30% new) barrique. A subtle sense of creaminess lends allure on the palate, where floral perfume wells up as the wine warms and opens to air. In the finish, I find the wood and lactic elements slightly inhibit the flow of juices, though the wine’s persistence per se is admirable. I won’t attempt to guess at its future evolution. For all of its virtues, this cuvee serves as a reminder of two difficulties I often experience with German Pinot Noir. First off, some of the best are that way by a sort of via negativa, rather than by making a really distinctive statement (a criticism that could of course be leveled against many Pinots from the New World). Secondly, marketing German Pinot Noir outside of its homeland will remain difficult in instances where a high U.S. retail price reflects demand and consequent ex cellar price inside Germany. In the present instance, for example, it’s hard for me to imagine very many wine lovers would be entirely happy to have spent $120 on this rather than a top-notch Burgundian premier or grand cru.
Caroline Diel is taking the reins at her family’s estate, and results in 2008 are as impressive as one would have expected given the track record at this address. The team here did not start harvesting until the third week in October and picked for nearly a month, due to which lateness the measurable acid levels (which were not adjusted) were relatively low by vintage standards, but the impression of acidity was more than vivacious and efficacious enough. On a quest for purity and authenticity, the Diels did not include in their bench trials for the blending of Grosse Gewachse any small lots of off-dry wine such as might in past have been employed expressly to fine-tune the finished levels of residual sugar. Instead, they let the blends all remain quite dry. Armin Diel has for at least the past dozen years championed and cherished the Mosel stylistic ideals of delicacy and of high residual sugar balanced against acidity. His choices of Mosel-born cellar master Martin Franzen (now of Muller-Catoir), and more recently of Moselaner Christoph Friedrich, testify to this proclivity. But there has never been a better vintage in which to give these ideals fluid realization. So if you are a lover of Kabinetts and Spatlesen from the likes of Joh. Jos. Prum, Willi Schaefer, or the Haags, do not miss the show Caroline and Armin Diel have put on this year, and that could be playing in your cellar any night over the next two decades!
Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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