Fresh apple, raw hazelnut, parsnip and musk melon tinged with salt and chalk dominate the Gies-Duppel 2008 Birkweiler Mandelberg Weiser Burgunder trocken (a bottling that would until now have been labeled “Spatlese”), which offers admirable primary juiciness and refreshment, along with the creaminess that I personally seek in this variety and find so charming when conjoined with vivacity and freshness. A long finish introduces subtle salt and chalk suggestions while maintaining a complex interaction with orchard fruits, nut oils, root vegetables and melon. Gies’s success with this variety stands out in the context of its vintage and region, although as he points out, there was a huge difference this year in the ripening (or not-quite ripening) of Pinot Blanc in the lesser sites that informed his generic bottling, and its performance in the Mandelberg and Taschberg. I expect you will find this immensely versatile over at least the next 3-5 years, though the track record for Pinot Blanc of this quality is only being established at this address. 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

The Gies-Duppel 2007 Birkweiler Mandelberg Weiser Burgunder Spatlese trocken displays the saline savor I have come to associate with wines of this region grown on so-called Bundsantstein (a Triassic-era colorful sandstone), here integrated – almost Chablis-like – into herb and chicken stock. This represents a fine collaboration of vintage and grape (as with a number of this year’s Pfalz Pinot Blancs), with even more vivacity and pronounced minerality than one usually can get from this grape – yet with considerable richness and ample body (at an otherwise unnoticeable 13.5% alcohol) leading to a long, lip-smacking, and at the same time thought-provokingly meaty, mineral finish. These vines are only seven years old, and since there is chalk at a few meters depth below the surface, a terrorist can place odds that the wine’s character will change considerably as the roots penetrate. This elegant beauty should be worth following for at least 6-8 years. Volker Gies took over his family’s domaine in 1999, and is relentlessly and successfully pursuing quality and site-specificity while offering (at least, based on ex-cellar pricing) some of the finest values I have tasted in German wine over the past several years. Some potentially exciting new vineyard sites have recently been cleared for planting it is clear that, as impressive as these wines are, there will be much more excitement up ahead. Although it had been in the bottle 18 months when I tasted it last September, Duppel’s well-concentrated but rather awkwardly woody, rough 2005 Pinot Noir represented at that time his current offering. But red wines represented the only disappointment of any sort at this address, and even here there is promise. Like his more famous neighbors Rebholz and Wehrheim, Giess renders a range of site-specific Pinot Blancs.Importer: Tartaglione Fine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 216-3356