While Gies-Duppel’s 2008 Pinot Noirs were somewhat disappointing, from barrel their 2009 Birkweiler Kastanienbusch Spatburgunder trocken displays healthy, ripe cherry with smoky, pungently green herbal (sage, marjoram) and invigoratingly saline accents. A resinous woody note slightly intrudes on the flow of primary sap in the finish, but might well integrate after bottling. Lest I am too pressed to re-taste this later, I commend it to readers’ attention now as well worth reassessing and likely to keep well for at least a few years. Incidentally, Gies is moving from 225-liter barriques to 300-liter capacity barrels in an effort to reduce exposure to wood. Volker Gies – for more about whose vineyards and methods consult my coverage in issue 185 –continues to display impressive talent and is happily receiving increasing recognition inside Germany. Hopefully wider U.S. distribution of this estate’s wines will follow. Like other of the best 2009 vintage Rieslings from Gies’s corner of the southern Pfalz, his harbor highly efficacious acidity and high energy of a sort that can by no means be taken for granted – not even on the Mosel! – in this vintage (and indeed, is almost entirely absent in the Rieslings from further south in Alsace). I have been quite keen on Gies’s Pinot Blancs, but found them (as well as his Pinot Gris) – despite ample ripeness – marginally disappointing from 2009, a circumstance familiar from this vintage in neighboring Alsace.Importer: Tartaglione Fine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 216-3356

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While a slightly rancid tone from the used 300-liter barrels in which it was vinified seemed to be what vitiated the basic Dies-Duppel Pinot Noir bottling for me, their 2007 Birkweiler Kastanienbusch Spatburgunder trocken is cleanly-fruited, its fresh, tart cherries taken with a significant does of their pits, and with a lovely marrow-like meatiness underlying its juicy, savory finish. This is a bit spare, no doubt, but is successful by more than merely a via negativa, sidestepping problems one often encounters with Pinot Noir from these climes, yes, but also balancing subtle creaminess with refreshment and pure fruit with a carnal dimension in way only this grape can, and then only when treated with the utmost care. I was thinking, drink this over the next 2-3 years, but then I tried a still fresh – if anything, more deeply-flavored – bottle that I was told had been open nine days (something you can’t do with Burgundy!) and so I just wonder?. For more about Volker Gies’s promising career and estate, consult my coverage in issue 185. His 2008s – which typically received around 6 hours on their skins in the press – were bottled already in March (and indeed, several were sold out by September). Gies indicated that it rained in his part of the Sudliche Weinstrasse for the better part of a week beginning October 27, so that he was glad to have finished picking shortly before that, but as at neighboring Wehrheim, I found this collection of wines on the whole slightly austere when compared with last year’s.Importer: Tartaglione Fine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 216-3356