Dr. Jochen Simens was editor of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper before he took over the ex-Bert Simon wine estate in Serrig on the Saar in 2006 and turned it into Weingut Dr. Siemens. His Rieslings from the 2011 vintage are amongst the finest produced in the region in this great vintage, and his dry 2010 Riesling Spätlese “T” from the Würtzberg vineyard is a Rider on the Storm! Here he tells his own story:
A while ago a thoughtful producer reissued the great Doors album ‘LA Woman’ in nicely remastered version. Great music! So recently I found myself walking and climbing through my steep Riesling vineyards along the Saar river humming the opening tune of that album called ‘The Changeling’. Suddenly it occurred to me how fitting that is for the vines to the left and right of me: “I’m a changeling, see me change”. How true!
To my left was the Serriger Würtzberg site with its red slate soil full of iron oxide and quartz rocks and to my right the equally steep Serriger Herrenberg site with pure blue slate that reflects some warmth even on a cold, but sunny day. Riesling to my left, Riesling to my right. But what a difference! The Changeling to my right is very elegant, sleek, crisp and almost aristocratic; The Changeling to my left is much more robust with broad shoulders, minerality galore and a bouquet of wild herbals. Of course, you don’t see all that walking down the rows between the vines. There they are almost perfect look-a-likes, though their masks are ever-changing throughout the seasons. Even during harvest time they don’t let you know more than a few naked numbers like the weight of grapes, sugar content, acidity and ripeness.
Carefully squeezed from the grapes the juice slides into the tanks and barrels down in the cellar where it starts its natural fermentation. Then little by little the Riesling starts to show his/her Changeling character. During the first few weeks much to the amusement of my wine maker, Herr Lenz, I might mix up the emerging wines from the two different vineyard sites, but not for too long. Then the changeling shows his character: the Herrenberg is suddenly showing off as pure grapefruit juice, while the Würtzberg carries the aromas of wild fennel and an ever changing mix of herbs. At the end of January 2011 one of the 1200 liter barrels of the 2010 vintage had for two or three weeks a very authentic smell of marijuana! It was very extreme, but was gone before bottling, thank goodness.
When the time to decide on the dryness or sweetness of the emerging wine The Changeling opens a new box of surprises. Green fruit aromas like apple or gooseberry accompany the dry Rieslings, yellow fruits like peach the semi dry, and finally a bunch of tropical fruit aromas such as mango, pine apple and passion fruit the sweet Auslese. And all that from one grape variety!
I leave it to Stuart to explain to us the chapter about the changeling who emerges through aging in the bottle. But with the experience of just the seven harvests I had in these great vineyards at the southern limit of viticulture along the valley of the Saar River I’m sure the changeling won’t stop to surprise us.
Jochen Siemens, Serrig/Saar
Weingut Dr. Siemens, Römerstrasse 63, 54455 Serrig
Tel.: (49) / (0) 6581 / 920 0992 – Fax: (49) / (0) 6581 / 920 0993
Email: weingut@dr-siemens.de – Web: www.dr-siemens.de
PS Weingut Dr. Siemens also producers a remarkably good Pinot Noir red for a region that on papere is seriously sool climate!
Stuart Pigott
