Cépage et Cuisine: June 7, 2016 – Balance and Precision … and No Checking the Watch

Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s blog about wine, food, people, and places. Today we were honored to be received at Weingut Dr. F. Weins-Prüm, a well-known producer in Wehlen.

The Prüm family dates back many centuries in the Mosel, more than 400 years. In 1911, the siblings split up the family holdings and most started their own estates. Anna Maria Prüm, the youngest of seven children of Mathias Prüm, married Francis Weins, a medical doctor, creating the estate.

Here’s a family tree to show how the family business was divided and what names they take today. Four of the branches still carry the Prüm name and are situated in Wehlen, essentially neighbors to one another along the Mosel. Pauly-Bergweiler is a producer we visited a few days ago in Bernkastel and described in a blog post.

We were welcomed by Bert Selbach, who now owns the estate, and his nephew, Christoph. We enjoyed our tasting and discussion in the elegant living room of the family home.

What a thrill it was to hold a glass of their wine, stand at the window to see the vineyard where the grapes were grown and harvested, and discuss characteristics of the wine, the grapes, the soil, the terrain, and the vintage with the owners of the estate.

I describe their wines as exquisitely balanced with great precision of flavor and structure. Like some other fine Rieslings, it offers a fine tension and energy between acidity, ripeness, and flavors of tree fruit, citrus, flinty minerality, and spice.

Differences among the vineyard sites are readily apparent. The wines are matured in stainless steel to preserve the freshness and fruit character, but also see a little time in large, old oak casks to add a slight softness and complexity. These are some of the finest wines we have experienced on our visit to the Mosel.

Mr. Selbach and Christoph were generous to taste us through their portfolio of vineyards, ripeness levels from kabinett to auslese, and styles from the dry trocken style to sweet and fruity.

Something to point out from this label photo is the A.P. number. The term is amtliche prüfnummer, essentially a quality control number similar to a lot number in the U.S. The first digit corresponds to the region in Germany. In this case, the number 2 means Mosel. The last two numbers refer to the year of testing by wine regulators, generally the year following harvest, so 16 in this case. The other figures relate to the exact estate submitting the wine for testing and the order in which it was submitted.

Mr. Selbach produced a detailed vineyard map of the Mosel, which we’re studying in this photo. In the 19^th century, the vineyards were parceled among many more specific names than now. Wehlener Sonnenuhr, for example, was much smaller by that name during earlier years and was the area just around the famous sundial. German wine regulatory authorities later collapsed other vineyard names into Wehlener Sonnenuhr to create a larger vineyard by that name.

Here are our friendly and generous hosts as we were about to depart.

Here is the Weins-Prüm estate home from across the Mosel.

This photo shows the Weins-Prüm estate home adjacent to the estate home for Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm.

Here are a two fantastic views of Wehlener Sonnenuhr from just outside the Weins-Prüm family home.

A few kilometers north of Wehlen and on the same side of the Mosel is the village of Urzig …

… and another famous vineyard, Urziger Würzgarten, which is southeast-facing. It is amazingly steep, like many other vineyards along the Mosel.

The most immediately noticeable difference between Urziger Würzgarten in contrast to other vineyards we have visited is the red volcanic rocky soil, high in iron. The soil difference is thought to provide a distinctive character to the wines, more herbal and spicy with notes of clove and coriander. In fact, the name of the vineyard, Würzgarten, actually translates to the English spice garden.

This is the Mönchhof Hotel, a landmark in Urzig.

After a terrific visit to Weins-Prüm and touring around in Urzig, we went in search of lunch.

We selected the Winzerverein in Zeltingen with its lovely shaded terrace. Happily, they had plenty of tables so we didn’t need a reservation.

The hotel sits just across the street from the Mosel.

We knew we were in a good place because there was a Swan mom with her three swanlings. This makes Mary so happy.

Cyclists pedaled past at a leisurely pace, in no hurry to get anywhere quickly.

We both enjoyed healthy salad dishes for lunch.

This figure in a hammock next to our table pretty well sums up the ambience of the place, just the way we like it. We whiled away a pleasant hour or two. Who knows? I wasn’t checking my watch.

We repaired to the apartment and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. I think I took a nap. Life is pretty doggone good.

We had no dinner reservations and neither of us was in the mood for anything fancy. Plus, we’ve sampled the bandwidth of regional cuisine pretty well. Mostly to get something a little different and for the sake of convenience, we went to this Greek restaurant in Bernkastel.