| Score: |
. LF.
"[Henrik Möbitz is] One of those people that is absolutely brilliant at everything they do. A modern day Renaissance Man. As some of you know by now, Henrik is a hobbyist winemaker at night and by day is a biochemist who specializes in cancer treatments. I'm not sure if there are many like him in the world of wine. He is as passionate and beguiled by cancer research as he is by the difficulties of growing Pinot Noir and is always questioning his work and never settles for anything. As a result, these are some of the most beautiful, elegant and cerebral Pinot Noirs on the planet. Henrik would hate that last sentence as he is modest as they come and pickier than me about wine. Half the time we are tasting in barrel and cellar and half the time we are discussing his cellar and what to drink for dinner. This year's highlights were 2010 Koepfle Pinot Noir, 2001 Kanzell Weissburgunder and a '97 Von Schubert Abtsberg Auslese. We chatted about such a huge range of topics the conversation got me almost exhausted as the wonderful wines. In a good way. Trust me . . . . When I was tasting with Henrik this past August he whipped out a new cuvée form a vineyard called the Kapelle . . . . This is very, very limited. Henrik tells me it is the warmest of the three sites; it is a full south facing site that has a very draining, jurassic chalk soil with concrete like appearance (Kuestenkonglomerat) that limits the vines' vigour. This makes for sinewy wines with good structure, fine-boned but not a lot of flesh, although they tend to fill out over time - think Corton-Bressandes. The 14 Kapelle Pinot starts out peppery, austere and wild, but fills out with air - the tannins and something about the nose are very distinctive, tell-tale Kapelle. It is almost a Vosne/Volnay blend aromatically and has the telltale Möbitz complex, full and ripe palate full of finesse and nuance. Despite what I said about the site characteristics, the Pinot always has noticably more glycerol (ca 20% more) than the other sites. So this will, in my opinion, drink well young but will also age very well as Henrik's Pinots have an extraordinary ability to age. It really seems, from my tasting, although it could have evolved since then, to not quite have the leanness of Kanzell and not quite the fat and glycerin of the Koepfle, but something like a hybrid of both in a way." Lyle Fass, Rockssandfruit.Blogspot.com, Jun 2016 |