Chain Bridge Cellars, owned and run by Doug House, is a leading wine store in the greater Washington DC area, a few blocks away from where Annette and I live. In the recent newsletter I was very happy to see the announcement that Gernot Kollmann, co-owner and winemaker at Weingut Immich Batterieberg in the Mosel valley, was coming to the store for a tasting.
Gernot presented 5 of his bone-dry Mosel Rieslings. Following the tasting I had the Weingut Immich Batterieberg Riesling Trocken C.A.I. 2021 with a dozen of Virginia oysters at home.
Gernot and I go back a number of years.
In 2015, Annette organized a winemaker dinner with Gernot Kollmann (plus Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens
Busch, Mosel, and
Dominik Sona, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, Pfalz) at the trendy BToo on 14th
Street NW in Washington DC (now closed).
We visited Weingut Immich Batterieberg in 2017 on a Germany Tour by ombiasy led by Annette Schiller.
Weingut Immich Batterieberg is part of the Louis/ Dressner portfolio.
Invitation/ Chain Bridge Cellars (McLean, Virginia) - Producer Spotlight: Profoundly Dry Immich Batterieberg Rieslings with Winemaker Gernot Kollmann
Bone Dry. Mosel Riesling.
That’s what Gernot Kollman does and, as Wine Advocate wrote a few years ago, “under the direction of Gernot Kollmann, Immich-Batterieberg has quietly grown to become one of the Mosel's top domaines for dry Riesling.”
Come see how as you meet Gernot and taste:
Wallflower Mosel Riesling Briedeler Herzchen Trocken 2018 - Made at the estate and with estate fruit in collaboration with Virinia's Early Mountain winemaker Ben Jordan!
Immich Batterieberg Riesling Trocken C.A.I. 2021 - the "entry level" bottling honoring estate founder, Carl August Immich
Immich Batterieberg Riesling Escheberg 2020 - a blend of select parcels from all of Gernot's crus.
Immich Batterieberg Riesling Briedeler Herzchen 2020 - From a steep south-east facing location with gray to red slate on the right side of the Pündericher Marienburg.
Immich Batterieberg Wermut NV - Not even going to try to describe the kaleidoscope of aromas and flavors here!
Gernot will share the story of his estate (including why there’s a cannon on the C.A.I. label), his vines, and how climate change has helped reshape Germany’s most famous Riesling region. As usual there’s no charge for our Producer Spotlight tastings held upstairs around the tasting table, but we do ask that you reserve one of the five 30 minute sessions from 5pm to 7:30pm so we can make sure everyone has plenty of time to enjoy and appreciate the wines. Don’t miss this one!
Weingut Immich Batterieberg at Louis/Dressner Selections
Louis/Dressner Selections is a wine importing company founded in the early 1990’s by Joe Dressner and his wife Denyse Louis. The “M” was added when Kevin McKenna joined forces with them a few years later, thus completing the LDM triumvirate. LDM, as they are known, were never interested in scores, never interested in wines with “gobs of fruit,” and never interested in highly paid wine consultants. They are interested in low-impact, organic farming methods, and they are interested in elegant wines, especially those from the Loire Valley and Beaujolais; they were exploring these wines at a time when few others were. Their focus has always been on the vignerons, on the people who make the wines.
Weingut Immich Batterieberg/ Bowler Wines
Bowler Wines: We are very excited to be working with Gernot Kollmann, one of the most watched winemakers in Germany. After working at Van Volxem and then making the Knebel wines in 2008, Gernot had the opportunity (with partners) to purchase the historic estate of Immich-Batterieberg.
The Immich family history in the Mosel dates back to the Middle Ages, when a Prince von Esch possessed the 12th-century building. Located in the center of Enkirch, the original section of the castle, Escheburg, is named after him. The Immich family would own the estate for over 500 years (1425–1989). In the mid-19th century, Carl August Immich needed more cultivable land on which to plant vines. His holdings included the Enkirch hillside, which was less a hillside and more a steep cliff face of solid stone; using sprengbatterien (a battery of explosives filled with gunpowder) from 1841 to 1845, he reduced the site to rubble, which not only made it cultivable but also gave the vineyard its name, Batterieberg (“demolition hill”). The estate's name refers to this site.
The estate consists of 13 ha. Holdings include 1.1 ha of the best parcels in the Batterieberg (grand cru in grey slate + quartzit), as well as parcels in the great vineyards of Ellergrub (grand cru in blue slate), Steffensberg (1er cru in red slate) and Zeppwingert (grand cru in grey slate + quartzit). All of these sites contain parcels of very old, ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines--a genuine treasure trove of vine material almost unknown elsewhere in Germany. The Escheburg is a dry Riesling, firm and impressive, made from a blend of ungrafted vines from Steffensberg, Ellergrub and Batterieberg. It represents an astonishing value. Batterieberg is located within the larger Zeppwingert, which along with Ellergrub and Steffensberg were among the highest-ranked vineyards according to the 1897 Mosel-Weinbau-Karte, the Prussian viticultural tax map of the Mosel. Gernot's most recent acquisition in 2014 was a small, dizzyingly steep site in neighboring Traben called the Zollturm ("toll tower") which he uses partly for his Sekt and partly for a grand cru cuvee named for the site. The wines are all produced dry in a combination of used casks and stainless steel with full fermentations, ambient yeasts and nothing added to the wines except a low amount of sulfur. The wines are therefore natural and vegan. They are also compellingly vibrant, long-lived in the cellar, and most profoundly terroir-driven.
Immich-Batterieberg has been practicing organic viticulture for ten years and will certify for the first time in 2022.
Tasting with Gernot Kollmann at Chain Bridge Cellars
Gernot presented 5 wines, all bone-dry Mosel Riesling.
Virginia Oysters and Dry Mosel Riesling
See: Post-Rieslingfeier and Pre-Big Glou Dinner with 3 Top Winemakers from Germany at BToo in Washington DC: Clemens Busch, Immich-Batterieberg and Koehler-Ruprecht, USA (2015)
We had breakfast in Bad Neuenahr in the Ahr Valley. From there we drove about an hour for our first appointment at Weingut Markus Molitor in the Mosel Valley. After lunch, we spent the early afternoon at Weingut Immich-Batterieberg with Managing Director/ Winemaker Gernot Kollmann. The third visit was at Weingut Fritz Haag, with Oliver Haag.
The visit at Markus Molitor was tasting only. At Fritz Haag and Immich Batterieberg we also visited the vineyards. All 3 tastings were most impressive.
At Weingut Immich-Batterieberg, Gernot Kollmann was our host.
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