Pinot Noir Steinbuckel VDP.Grosses Gewächs 2018

Falstaff

Robert Parker

From a somewhat cooler site located on a slope with southern exposure and massive limestone in the subsoil, the 2018 Pinot Noir GG Steinbuckel offers a deep and concentrated yet pure and refreshing chalky bouquet of ripe sour cherries and dark fruits and still shows a little reduction but also beautiful precision. It comes from Philipp's oldest Pinot Noir site planted in 1993 with French clones that didn't yield more than 38 hectoliters per hectare in 2018. This is a full-bodied, lush and intense as well as refined and elegant Pinot with ripe and open fruit, superb concentration and a certain openness we know from reds of Europe's south. I could have mistaken this Pfalz Pinot Noir for a Chianti, perhaps, spicy and ripe as the fruit and vital as the acidity is. The finish is tart and fresh, still young but very promising. This is an excellent, adorable Pinot from an excellent or even great vintage. Nothing is warm or stewed in this wine; it is fabulously precise, pure and fresh and balances its full and dense body with ease and tension. It has a very long and vital finish, is still young but digestible and, compared to the corresponding Kirschgarten, more robust and edgy. Aged for two years in 50% new and 50% used French barriques. 13.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork

Vinous by Antonio Galloni

The 2018 Pinot Noir Laumersheimer Steinbuckel Grosses Gewächs is the current release. It was made with about 10% of whole bunches and spent 3-4 weeks on skins before being pressed and aged for 24 months in French oak, half new, half used. The nose of this now five-year-old wine shows a meaty note, verging into something lactic, with darkly brooding fruit, some smoke and tar. In the distance, a note of caramel appears and more of that smoky cured meat. The palate is dense with velvety tannin, still drying. Fine freshness makes a gentle frame. While aromas are mutable and earthy, the structure combines density and finesse where nothing is overripe. There's a slight dissonance between the finessed structure and rustic aroma.