Lifford Wine and Spirits Winery of the Week: Staete Landt, New Zealand

www.LiffordWine.com

www.StaeteLandt.co.nz

Ruud Maasdam is a great fellow; jovial, quick-to-smile, enthusiastic when he speaks and rarely cross, and so I naturally found myself liking him as he and I spoke at the 2013 Lifford Wine tasting at the Stanley Park Pavilion in Vancouver, BC.

I must say that I actually owe Ruud an apology: I recorded our conversation for podcast, but there was so much ambient sound that it made my recording unpublishable. Anyways! So Ruud is a great guy, and we were having a fantastic discussion on wine, but why oh why is this important to you?

Because Ruud makes World Class Wine. Period. You and I may instinctively think of New Zealand and make associations with Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, but what if I told you that one of the most exciting Chardonnay I had all year was from Staete Landt, from New Zealand?

New Zealand Chardonnay? My friends, if you haven't had the pleasure of trying some of the absolutely brilliant product that never leaves the country (because the Kiwis drink it all!) then you must, definitely must try some. And soon!

And so when my good friends at Lifford Wines sent me a quick email saying that they were choosing Staete Landt as their Winery of the Week, I simply had to re-post. This is a winery easily on par with the very best from that country, and most certainly worthy of your time and attention. But I will defer to my colleagues at Lifford to say what they've managed to coax out of the Maasdam family and into our over-taxed country.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is an email from Lifford Wines intended for restaurants and Independent Wine/Liquor Stores, not the general public. The views here-in are Lifford Wines', not my own.

Staete Landt is a boutique family owned and operated vineyard and winery. They are focused on producing ultra premium wines that represent the unique terroir of the famed “Golden Mile” in New Zealand’s most important wine region, Marlborough. The Golden Mile is a special strip of land in the sub region of Rapaura; a unique micro-climate (close to the Wairau river) creates the region’s best wine growing conditions. It’s home to some of the oldest and most famous Marlborough vineyards. Staete Landt wines are estate grown and made with the firm belief that the best wines are wines with character, complexity and great balance. Other Cool Stuff: A wine family we love… a lot. Ruud Maasdam and his wife Dorien, Dutch by birth, moved their family to a New Zealand apple orchard in search of producing the country’s best wines. Incredible passion and dedication to quality: in depth soil analysis led them to identify 24 different blocks within their small vineyard. Each block is picked separately according to slight variations in maturation. The name, Staete Landt, references Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who discovered New Zealand in 1642 and proclaimed it “Staete Landt”, land for the Dutch state. Although that didn’t work out, the Maasdam family carries on the legacy of Tasman in the heart of Marlborough. Okay okay we know SAUVIGNON BLANC. Yep, theirs is elegant, nuanced and complex, WE KNOW. But have you tried the Chardonnays?! OR the Syrah?! OR the Riesling?! Sensational.  §   Map Maker Sauvignon Blanc 2011 *spec, SKU 889444 12 x 750 mL $17.99   "Annabel" Estate Grown Sauvignon Blanc 2011/2012 *spec, SKU 638403  12 x 750 mL $27.99   Estate Grown Riesling Auslese 2010 *spec, SKU 364117 6 x 750mL $34.99   "Josephine" Estate Grown Chardonnay 2010 *spec, SKU 402198 6 x 750 mL $34.99     Map Maker Pinot Noir 2010 *spec, SKU 519280 12 x 750 mL $29.99   "Paladin" Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2009 *stocked spec, SKU 401547 6 x 750 mL $39.99 "Arie" Estate Grown Syrah 2010 *spec, SKU 620807 6 x 750 mL $39.99   § Please contact your Sales Agent if you require more information. Plamen Velikov – plamenv@liffordwine.com Joe Dobbie – joed@liffordwine.com Nick Waggott – nickw@liffordwine.com Niki Randall – nikir@liffordwine.com If you would like to taste any of these wines between August 12th and August 23rd, email igala@liffordwine.com and he will be pleased to arrange an appointment.

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As I said my friends, this is a winery on the same level as many from the same region charging far more per bottle. Excellent wine but stunning value, and, you get to support a really fantastic fellow :) ... If you're looking at making room in your portfolio for: more New Zealand, a new Chardonnay, etc-  then this will be worth your time.

The proof is in the glass!

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments, either here or on Twitter @AStudentofWine

CINCIN~!!!      SLAINTE~!!!     CHEERS~!!!

2007 Piesporter "goldtropfchen" Riesling spatlese weingut St URBANS-HOF

Riesling; the longest-lived wine on the planet. Period. There is a barrel of Riesling in a German museum, which is still drinkable and tasted every 5 years by a panel of experts, from the mid-1600's.

   That's right, the wine is almost 400 years old.

   I thought an exclamation point at the end of that last statement would be overkill, but I'm sure you felt the implied emphasis! Riesling is a kind of "magical" varietal and no one is (arguably) better at working with this ancestral vine then the Germans. Baden, the Mosel, Pfalz or the Rheingau ; all of these areas and more, every part of Germany lends something different to it's wine. Some give a clean-slate minerality, others- ripeness of fruit, whilst some offer a baked-honey-utterly-lavish finish to the late-harvest wines that most of the world only dreams of.

   Yes, in Germany the mighty Riesling  becomes more then the sum of it's parts.

   And in Germany, depending on when in the picking season the grape is harvested, the sums of those parts will be given a different name. I suppose I should start by offering that these ingenious folks even have different names for varying levels of quality. Not given arbitrarily, all wines are given rigorous tasting and testing before judgement:

1. Deutcher Tafelwein : basic table wine
2. Deutcher Landwein :  a little better quality, from one of the specific 19 regions
3. Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA):  here's where we start to find some good quality; region specific to only 13 areas... these wines start to speak about where they come from
4. Prädikatswein :  the best quality; this is a new title replacing a much longer one that was easily confused with the third level (especially for non-German speakers)... although these can be dry, they almost always have a lip-smacking, dentist-(un)approved residual sugar. These wines tell a story, and tell it well.

St Urbans-Hof slopes

   So alot of information to digest, but this article is going to focus on one  Prädikatswein in particular: the St Urbans-Hof Riesling Spatlese... always a thing of beauty, this particular vintage (2007) is a true gem. I truly am thankful to the friend and colleague who turned me on to this small band of artisans. 

   Of course, this isn't the first article I've written about the family run winery from the Mosel region ( http://astudentofwine.blogspot.ca/2011/03/riesling-st-urbans-hof-mosel-germany.html ) and I imagine that it won't be my last. These wines are filled with depth, concentration, balance and offer good to excellent value at any price-point.

   You doubt my words? Fine with me, for the proof (as always) is in the glass my friends.

2007 piesporter, goldtropfchen, Riesling-spatlese weingut 

St Urbans-Hof (winery), Leinwen, Mosel, Germany

$55 regular, on-sale at some speciality stores in BC for $39

93 Points
http://www.urbans-hof.de/

wine merchant in BC/Alberta: www.renwine.com
 

let me diverge from my normal style of article and talk about the label for a second, and the litany of words/names that appear.  

piesporter :   name for the (small) wine-growing region around the village of Piesport on the north bank of the Mosel river. Approximately 69 HA
goldtropfchen :   a term used to signify a this regions' top-level wine meaning "little drop of gold" 
Riesling-spatlese :   these Rieslings almost always carry a richer currant of ripe fruit flavors; I often find stonefruit dominant in tasting notes, and because of a generally higher level of residual sugar often have a fuller body and higher alcohol 
weingut :  meaning an estate which is growing grapes for wine, as opposed to purchasing their grapes, purchasing their juice, or growing their grapes for someone else's wine
Leinwen : is the name of the small town and Mosel as stated earlier is the region

• visual:   clear; ultra pale straw core with gold and silver highlights
• nose:   clean; fully intense and developing aromas of warm hay, honey, ripe stonefruit and stewed apricots, a super-intense line of crisp/vibrant minerality is piercing and yet balances thr ripe fruit perfectly
• palate:   clean; off-dry (64.7 grams sugar/L), full (yellow grapefruit) acids, moderate- body, moderate- alcohol (9% ABV), fully intense and developing flavors that mimick the nose with that strong current of minerality running rampant throughout... a strong spicy finish reminiscent of great Gewurztraminer. Excellent balance, very good structure and long length
• conclusion:   already drinking well, this wine has the acidity and sugar levels to ensure a long life in the cellar, but will not develop appreciably. Drink 2012-2025
• FOOD PAIRINGS:   use the sugars to best effect! Consider grilled lobster with fresh Thai basil coconut sauce on roasted peanut rice noodles and steamed gai-lan ... lobster loves Riesling  and a slightly spicy sauce will play well off the residual sugar in the wine. The mineral tones will embrace the earthy flavors from roasted nuts and the fresh vegetable will act as a little palate cleanser.

looking DOWN the slopes at St Urbans-Hof

    So many names, so many descriptive words. The Germans seem determined to make something as simple as fermented grape-juice as complex as they can. But what are we talking about? What is wine?

   Wine is more then just the grapes, more then just the fermentation process, or the maturation. Wine is more even then the people that perform all these tasks and more. Wine is a sometimes magical process that allows the grapes to tell the story of the land and the people that they come from.

   Perhaps a simple concept, but not an easy task. St Urbans-Hof has managed to do just that; with the German concepts of name, name, naming I can start to understand that story a little better from the moment I pick up the bottle. I know where this wine is from, and a bit about the people who made it. They're proud of what they've done, to put their name on the label so prominently.

   And so they should be

Nik Weis, current winemaker/proprietor

As always, I welcome your comments and questions.

CINCIN~!!!     SLAINTE~!!!     CHEERS~!!!