Van Elkan (Mertesdorf)
We have frequently searched along the Ruwer, the small tributary that joins the Mosel just east of Trier, where the wines have remarkable delicacy and race. A tip from Marco Winterberg, a teacher and part-time wine importer in Holland brought us to Marco van Elkan’s door. He works full-time in a social research project at Trier University, so our appointment had to be early. Very early – we were tasting dry Riesling at a bracing 8.30h in the morning.
He bought a miniscule parcel of abandoned vines in the Kaseler Nies’chen vineyard in 2001 and nursed the 70 year-old vines back to life. First vintage was 2003. The vines were grateful and, with some guidance from Peter Geiben (of Karlsmuhle) and Ludwig Breiling (former wine-maker at Karthauserhof), the results are pure Ruwer. Clear, herbal and fresh, like a fast-running mountain stream.
In 2008, he and his wife built a striking new house that includes holiday apartments and his cellar. Marco now has four parcels of vines totalling half a hectare (still tiny) which produce a meagre 3,000-4,000 bottles a year. We bought 4% of his 2011 production!
Rinke (Mertesdorf) ORGANIC
Die Mosel, the super wine bar in Traben-Trarbach has provided fertile hunting ground for new growers. A stand-out red on a visit in June 2023 was from Rinke. Marion Rinke works as a lawyer in Luxembourg, lives in Trier with her husband Alex, who works in catering in Trier and who now makes the wine. Their cellar is in Oberemmel in the Saar and their tasting room is in Mertesdorf on the Ruwer (right next to the river). It’s hard to keep up.
Their story seems familiar: a couple love wine and decide to buy some vines and make wine. Simple, right? It never is that straightforward but following a steep learning curve they have prevailed. They started in 2006 with Langsurer Bruderberg a steep vineyard in the unfashionable bit of the upper Mosel between Trier and Luxembourg. Its Muschelkalk (chalk with fossils) geology has more in common with northern Burgundy than the slate dominated Mosel.
In 2015 they picked up old vines in steep slate vineyards on the Saar in Oberemmeler Altenberg, Wiltinger Klosterberg and Wiltinger Braunfels.
It was love at first taste with the Fruhburgunder (aka Pinot Noir Precoce or Pinot Madeleine), an early ripening mutation of Pinot Noir. Seems delicate at first then, with air and a little time, the haunting aroma emerges and the Pinot-esque persistence reveals itself. Yum.
