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  • May 22, 2013
  • Discoveries on the Saar: VOLS

  • by Oliver Fischer

saar_riesling_trocken_volsHelmut Plunien and Weingut VOLS: “Out of the shadows of the great estates.”

Almost no other wine region in Germany has created as much buzz in recent years as the Saar Valley, with only slightly over 700 hectares under vine. In addition, it legally belongs to the “Mosel” wine region, which is yet another paradox owing to the German law.

Once popular around the world for its mineral, crisp, and elegant style, Saar Riesling currently enjoys a popularity that it hasn’t seen since its heyday. This began in the mid-19th century and ended with the great vintages of the 1970s. After the introduction of the new wine law in 1971, mostly sweet and simple Rieslings dominated and eventually these wines no longer corresponded to the taste of the majority of wine drinkers at home and abroad. Apart from famous estates—such as Egon Müller – Scharzhof, Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken, or von Hövel—the region was lost in a kind of collective slumber.

For over a decade now, the arduous steep-slope viticulture on the Saar has experienced a renaissance. The pioneer of this development was Roman Niewodnisczanski, who, in 1999, as heir to a family who owns a German brewery giant, had already started the ambitious project to resurrect the former traditional van Volxem estate. In various first-rate single vineyards with old vines, he pursued the goal of making Saar Rieslings with typical regional character. Contrary to popular belief, he had found after extensive research that the wines in the past tended to be dry to off-dry.

Now, the potential of the region could be tasted once again. Thus the interest from ambitious, well-to-do newcomers suddenly rose to bring back other famous Saar estates to prominence. In 2005, Dr. Jochen Siemens, once editor of a leading German newspaper, acquired a former Prussian property around the sites of Herrenberg and Würtzberg in Serrig. The banker Hans Maret purchased Weingut Reverchon in Konz-Filzen in 2007. The best-known “newcomer,” however, is Günther Jauch, a prominent German journalist and television host, who took over Weingut von Othegraven in 2010.

In the Saar region, this boom has meant that a true competition for vineyard sites, higher quality, and markets has flared up in recent years. The most impressive thing about this “competition” is that Helmut Plunien has been able to step out of the shadow of the great estates.

In contrast to the aforementioned large landowners, the 48-year-old native of Wiltingen, together with his wife, Claudia, has risen to the top on the Saar with little capital. This happened, as so often in life, with detours. In the nineties, Helmut Plunien, who studied winemaking, gathered valuable experience in various cellars both in Germany and abroad, before he took over as estate director at the renowned Bürgerspital in Würzburg. In 2006, he moved from Franconia to the Mosel, as he was appointed the same position at the large, traditional Bischöfliche Weingüter Trier.

Already at this time, he and his family farmed a small plot in the top vineyard of Braunfels in Wiltingen, from which he made two different Rieslings with the designation "VOLS," an old and once famous site within Braunfels and also the name of their property. Even then, well-known wine journalists were aware of the authentic wines from this “hobby winegrower.”

In 2010, the Pluniens took the plunge, as they were offered an estate with about 7 hectares of vine in nearby Ayl. Hence, Plunien ended his work in Trier in order to become a full-time grower.

In the autumn of this year, he began to implement his clear concept for the development of the new operation. “To be able to resolutely pursue a philosophy in a winery, it must rest on three pillars,” Plunien says. “You have to be successful in viticulture, enology, and marketing. What has been undertaken in the respective areas must be clearly defined and coordinated.”

“Our philosophy is to produce racy, lively Rieslings and elegant Pinot Noirs that clearly reflect the soil, the climate, and the specific location of the vineyard,” he says. The wines should have a regional identity—that is, a “footprint”—which is difficult or impossible to copy elsewhere.

In order for this venture to succeed, Plunien puts more effort than some of his other colleagues in sustainable winegrowing. “We will not win a beauty contest for our vineyards,” says Plunien, who is more oriented towards ecological viticulture.

It’s especially important for him that the vines are “in balance.” A late pruning in February allows the plants sufficient time to recover after the fall. This strengthening also minimizes the risk of viral infections of the vines from cuts. “This is basically nothing new; we’ve known that even from the past,” Plunien says.

But not only the time of pruning is important for Plunien. It goes without saying that a short pruning of the vine is important, too. Average yields of 50 hl/ha are the goal. During the main growing season, he also avoids too-high canopy. For Riesling, he doesn’t de-leaf in order to prevent phenols in the fruit. During the harvest in the fall, the grapes are picked selectively and exclusively by hand under his watchful eye, as he considers it vital not to give what happens in the vineyard out of hand. He stresses, however, that such intensive and flexible vineyard work is only possible because he hires just local workers, whom he can assign when needed. “This makes us very flexible throughout the year,” he says.

In the cellar, he avoids all forms of additives. He does no skin contact to insure the desired light style for his wines. The sedimentation is natural, and the fermentation is without the addition of cultured yeasts. For aging the musts and young wines, Plunien uses both stainless-steel tanks and wooden casks.

Plunien's marketing strategy is based on transparency. It follows a pyramidal structure used by many of the top German producers. At the bottom are the Gutsweine, the Ortsweine, and then the Lagenweine—i.e., the basic "estate" wines, the village wines, and then the site-specific wines. The vineyard designations come partly from old place-names pre-1971 German Wine Law. The Prädikats—such as Kabinett, Spätlese, or Auslese—are used only for the fruity and nobly sweet wines.

At the moment, he is also busy with another project, namely renovating the existing Ayl winery in order to be “prepared” for the future.

Wine

The 2012 Saar Riesling trocken is a racy Saar Riesling that can safely be regarded as a successful calling card for the estate. It's almost exclusively from grapes vinified from "Scheidterberg" in Ayl. This south-east-by-east-facing slope has a slate soil.

This is an uncompromising dry wine that was fermented by ambient yeasts and has a nose of fresh citrus notes alongside a fine minerality, which is a little redolent of flint. In addition, the wine is würzig, or spicy, on the palate and has an amazing length for an entry-level wine. A dry Saar Riesling par excellence!

It's an ideal wine to accompany high-quality smoked fish, shellfish, or poultry, or just on its own for a chatty evening with friends! ♦

Translated, from the German, by Lars Carlberg.

Oliver Fischer, a trained lawyer and winegrower, lives with his wife in Bremen, where he would like to see more top Mosel Rieslings poured by the glass.

  • Oliver Fischer is rather modest, but he has true expertise and an excellent palate, and he knows Mosel wine better than most people I know. We first met in the mid-nineties at the University of Trier, where he was studying law and I was learning German. Back then, Oliver took me to some of his favorite growers, such as Alfred Merkelbach, where the brothers would blind taste Oliver. To no surprise, Oliver would pinpoint the vintage and site nearly every time. He did the same a few years ago when he introduced me to Kajo Christoffel of Jos. Christoffel jr., also in Ürzig. As students, we once took a tour of the Rheingau with visits to Leitz, J.B. Becker, and Robert Weil, among others. He also introduced me to Enderle & Moll. Besides his interest in wine, Oliver really knows classical music, especially 19th-century piano music. His favorite composer is Anton Brückner.

    Oliver recently managed a growers’ supplies store in Saarburg and once worked at Dr. Siemens in Serrig. Anyhow, I couldn’t agree more about VOLS, which combines a lightness of touch with depth. If we could only convince Helmut to change to a retro label. Nevertheless, the wines are sponti, invigorating, and true Saar. As I wrote in another article, Helmut use to only make a couple of wines each vintage from his parcel in Vols, also spelled Volz on Clotten’s 1868 Saar and Mosel map. These were usually sweet Spätlesen.

    In Oliver’s article, I’d like to add a few points. Roman, who also studied at the Uni Trier, is an heir of Bitburger Pils. At first, he and Gernot Kollmann wanted to do a small négoce operation out of Hatzenport or in the Mittelrhein. The wine style at Heymann-Löwenstein was kind of a model. Then came the offer for the former van Volxem estate. At the time, it was called Jordan & Jordan (between 1993 and 1999). After Roman’s purchase, he renamed the estate “Van Volxem.” The new Van Volxem wines weren’t necessarily typical Saar, as the Rieslings tended to have more substance and opulence than most other producers’ wines, as yields were restricted and the grapes macerated on the skins longer. Yet they created quite a buzz with their debut 2000 vintage, which was a most difficult year. Gernot has since moved on to Immich-Batterieberg, and Roman and his cellarmaster, Dominik Völk, have begun to lighten the style over the last few vintages. Van Volxem has had great success and holds over 45 ha of vine now, plus another 15 ha under contract with grape growers. And for those who don’t know, Dr. Siemens was formerly the property of Bert Simon.

    Lastly, Helmut’s estate name Vols (stylized as VOLS) comes from a highly rated site within today’s Wiltinger Braunfels.

  • Andrew Bair says:

    Thank you for the well-written article, Oliver. I am still waiting to try anything from VOLS – they have yet to make it into my market. I am going to check with the guys at Marty’s (my go-to place for Terry Theise’s selections) next time I am there, and find out if they plan to bring in any of the 2012s.

    Anyway, I thought that the von Othegraven wines were already quite good before Günther Jauch bought the property – at least those from the Altenberg were very much on par with von Hövel in my opinion, and just a step down from Zilliken and Egon Müller. It will be interesting to see if Jauch, with all his resources, can push the quality even further up the scale. Bert Simon was more of a sleeper, but the couple of wines that I had from there were both very good for the price.

  • In the opening paragraph, Oliver says, “[The Saar] legally belongs to the ‘Mosel’ wine region, which is yet another paradox owing to the German law.” Though it’s true that “Mosel-Saar-Ruwer” was officially shortened to Mosel in 2007, the region was traditionally known as “Mosel” up until 1909. The Saar, however, had a special standing. Many 19th-century books and maps would have “Saar und Mosel” or “Mosel und Saar” in the title. The Ruwer was grouped with the Mosel.

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