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Später-Veit

Colleagues and fellow growers have been telling me for a number of years that I was missing important wines by having never tasted at Später Veit, which boasts one of the longest family estate lineages in its village (which, this being Piesport, means centuries) and has holdings in all four of its major Left Bank Einzellagen. With the exception of one small parcel in the Domherr dating from soon after World War II, all of their Piesport vines date to the massive early-1990s Piesport Flurbereinigung. (One parcel in Wintrich is also very old.) The small sampling of wines that had until now come my way were largely satisfying, but as my visit and extensive tasting in September 2016 would demonstrate, either that sampling was unrepresentative or I was guilty of being unreceptive, because I came away realizing that the amicable and articulate Heinz and Silvia Welter, now assisted by their older son Niklas, have without fanfare or PR built this into a first-rate estate. Among the especially noteworthy and praiseworthy aspects of their portfolio are its wide stylistic range, encompassing at one end delicate, vivacious Kabinett trocken, and at the other the restraint and appropriateness of the non-trocken wines’ sweetness. The Welter regimen typically includes a measure of pre-fermentative skin contact. Most fermentation is spontaneous, and while a significant share of lots ferment in tank, wines raised there are often given a subsequent stay in cask. The Welters’ 2015 harvest was centered on the second half of October, yet as my notes show, there was no lack of opportunities for picking at modest must weights and high acidity, and lower-acid wines from their warmer sites never displayed the least sense of acid deficiency.

Another legacy of Flurbereinigung: The Welters’ 8.5 hectares in half a dozen Einzellagen are divided into fewer than two dozen different parcels. But if that plants in your mind the notion that this estate might economize correspondingly on individual bottlings, nothing could be further from the truth. Theirs is a price list that would have seemed familiar three or four decades ago, featuring a head-spinning number of combinations and permutations of Prädikat, style and site. What’s more, as my notes reveal, Heinz Welter is enormously fond of distinguishing individual lots by utilizing old vineyard names to supplement those of the official Einzellagen. He hasn’t made any attempt to register these under the relevant recent Rheinland-Pfalz legislation. But then, neither have any other Piesport vine holders, and I suppose the very fact that Welter has for years gotten away with sneaking these designations onto labels explains his lack of interest in trying to render any of them official. One more throwback at this address to an earlier era: the price list features wines from no fewer than half a dozen vintages, and the Auslese and top two Spätlesen that I tasted from 2015 had still not found their way onto the Welters’ price list as of mid-2017. Unfortunately, the amount of time I allocated for tasting here did not permit me to taste by any means all of the 2015s, so a look at earlier vintages will have to wait until my next visit. (Therefore, consider my prognostications of ageability especially speculative.) Pinot Noir has long been much more than a hobby with the Welters, as witness their having within the stretch of four years planted parcels in the Falkenberg, Gräfenberg and Wintricher Grosser Hergott, all now more than 20 years old. So I must make time for tasting Pinot here as well. A final interesting, forward-looking detail: I was surprised, especially given so many different bottlings, to find a number of these split between cork-finished and screwcapped. “We’re in a transition back to cork but we want to ease that for our customers,” Heinz Welter explained.

From Mosel 2015: Rain in the Nick of Time (Jun 2017) by David Schildknecht

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2015 Weisser Burgunder

Release Price: $20

Release Price: $30

Color: White

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2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese A.P. #18

Color: White

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2015 Piesporter Domherr Riesling Auslese

Release Price: $49

Color: White

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Später-Veit

2015 Weisser Burgunder

2015 Piesporter Falkenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken

2015 Piesporter Domherr Riesling Spätlese trocken

2015 Piesporter Grafenberg Riesling Kabinett feinherb

2015 Riesling Alte Reben

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese feinherb

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Spätlese feinherb Ginsterlay

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling feinherb Tradition

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Kabinett Armes

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese Jupp

2015 Piesporter Domherr Riesling Spätlese

2015 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese A.P. #18

2015 Piesporter Domherr Riesling Auslese

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