Dr Deinhard (Von Winning) Pinot Noir

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There can be no more striking example of Attmann’s ambitions or of his ability to turn an amateur’s aesthetic ideals into vinous reality than the remarkable wine that is to be bottled under the Von Winning label as simply 2008 Pinot Noir. Fermented for 23 days in a conical wooden upright, followed by maturation in 9 assorted barriques, it had only just finished malo-lactic after nearly a year when I tasted it, and had never been sulfured. I debated about publishing what looks like such improbably good news given this wine’s youth and the notoriously capricious ways of Pinot, but I tasted enough barrels and trust Attmann – having gotten this far – not to screw up from here out. Rose hip, blood orange, sour cherry, maraschino, and brown spices in the nose put me in mind of Chambolle or Vosne – I could not help it. The contrast between textural creaminess and tart bright edge of red berry and citrus zest is striking, and the bittersweet finish hauntingly long, polished, and elegant. This is an amazing performance in the making, and you can be sure I shall publish a note on the finished wine, too. Attmann got lucky: the vines are pinot fin suitcase clones tightly-spaced in a sweet spot in the Reiterpfad that was spared the vintage’s hail. For general updates on the change of ownership and radical recent developments at this venerable estate, I refer readers to my report in issue 185. The official winery name is now Von Winning and the Dr. Deinhard label will be used only for selected wines, not including any of the ostensibly top dry bottlings. I have conjoined the names, and continued to use Dr. Deinhard as a shorthand, because that is still how this winery is routinely referred to (even inside Germany), and readers should simply be on the lookout for either of these names on a label as an indication that it came from the winery in question (and, what’s more, is worth tasting). Young wine-geek-as-director Stefan Attmann – another of the many protegees of Hans-Gunter Schwarz, whose friend Joachim Niederberger now owns the winery – is attacking his work here with frenetic passion, but you have only to taste the latest crop of wines to recognize what discipline and determination he and his vineyard manager Joachim Jaillet (with whom I toured their sites) also bring to their jobs. Aspects of vinification worth bearing in mind are skin contact; near-absence of sedimentation; largely spontaneous fermentation; absence of fining; and filtration only immediately before bottling. (Common practice with German Riesling is still to filter at least twice.) “No risk, no fun,” is among Attmann’s mottos, though as he pointed out, the low pHs and cool weather of 2008 improved one’s odds. The U.S. importer, incidentally, offered last year a much extended range of 2007s, so that with two exceptions the stateside prices for wines of the 2008 vintage have not been set, although many can be expected to arrive here in the course of 2010. Precisely which wines of Deinhard will in future be bottled as Grosses Gewachs remains up in the air. The winery is promoting several individual parcels – i.e. not official post 1971 Einzellagen – for this status.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300