Two Bottles Albrecht Schwegler
We are drinking two wines from the Swabian Remstal region from the Albrecht Schwegler winery: a 2022 Chardonnay Reserve and a 2019 Granat.
What is considered normal in wine depends greatly on where you live or at least where you begin to explore the wine world. For those starting out in Germany, grape variety names on bottles and single-varietal bottlings are absolutely taken for granted. However, this certainty starts to crumble once you look beyond the borders, for example into neighboring countries. There, the grape variety is usually inferred from the vineyard site and wine color rather than what is printed on the front of the bottle. Single-varietal bottlings can often be the exception rather than the rule depending on the region. Just look at Bordeaux. Every additional wine country and region on the internal map makes things more complicated.
Albrecht Schwegler, naturally here in Württemberg, had a cooperative background when he bottled his first Granat under his own name in 1990. Together with the then ambitious price of over 40 Deutsche Mark, this likely caused some disparaging comments and resistance in the surrounding area. Time has proven him right, and today the next generation, his son Aaron and Aaron’s wife Julia, are at the helm. The red cuvées have remained the hallmark of the Schwegler family, and the Granat, as can be clearly seen in the photo, is still available today. The asking price of 60 euros is still ambitious but, given what some Pinot Noir or Riesling wines now cost, likely provokes few comments. The composition varies slightly depending on the vintage. The grapes for the 2019 vintage come from six parcels with Zweigelt (51%), Cabernet Sauvignon (32%), Merlot (10%), and a touch of Lemberger from the municipalities of Korb and Großheppach. It is matured for just over three years in completely new barrique barrels. However, the now accumulated 15 hectares of vineyard area no longer produce only red cuvées. In the reserve line, a few parcels are bottled as single-varietal wines. In the case of the 2022 Chardonnay, these are exactly two parcels in Korb. This wine spends just under two years in wooden barrels, with just under one-third new wood.
Upon uncorking, the Chardonnay smells cool and very crisp. The 2022 vintage is currently on the market, so it is not surprising that the wine still seems closed. There is citrus fruit, some wood, and a little grain. It drinks with a crisp mouthfeel. Behind that comes a drive from a mix of acidity and salty structure that, when sipped with air, really grabs the tongue.
Day two brings more pome fruit, and the grain jumps from the nose into the taste. It is a bit paradoxical because I would say the wine seems more open, but at the same time, it has become noticeably quieter. I catch myself trying to inhale deeply to suck the last few molecules from the glass toward my olfactory nerves. Luckily, no one sees that. Well, almost no one, as I skillfully ignore the contemptuous comment from across the table. Perhaps the Chardonnay is simply still too cold, as it opens up more with temperature. It definitely retains its salty, crisp structure, and the length keeps you hooked.
Day three approaches the first evening again. There is more nutty grain, it becomes softer, more charming, and now has a lot of pome fruit both in smell and taste. And pome fruit here really means the core, as the structure strongly resembles a firm bite into an apple core. This is truly beautiful and will have many years ahead.
This theme naturally continues with the Granat. And yes, I am fully aware of how young it still is. But it is not the current vintage on the market but the previous one. I just wanted to open it now. Lingering around a bottle for a few years would not have worked. This is also why the Chardonnay was given three evenings, to at least peek into the development over the coming years. There is a lot of elderberry, earth, and some brushwood mixed with licorice. There is a lot of aroma in a very tight space. It is concentrated, dense, and surprisingly juicy when drinking. I expected more stubbornness, but the acidity holds up well, and the dark fruit does the rest.
On the second evening, the wine is a bit stubborn. Aromatically, nothing has really changed, but somehow it just doesn’t want to today. The tannin is bristlier and resists as I had expected from the start. No matter, we have time. Tomorrow is another day.
And indeed, it becomes more harmonious the next evening. The wine is a long-distance runner just getting started. We are early with this bottle, no question. But I wouldn’t say we are too early. At the trusted butcher’s, beautiful ox rib steaks have been on display for weeks in a cut thickness that leaves no confusion with carpaccio. My better half doesn’t eat meat, so week after week I look at those pieces in vain. Until, as chance would have it, the perfect opportunity arose just that weekend. For two meat eaters, a kilo of raw weight can be easily justified, especially since you have to subtract at least the bone weight. It may be a bit clichéd, pairing big red wine with a large piece of dry-aged meat. But when it works as well as here, what is there to complain about? The wonderful dark fruit, the structure, the spice, the aromatic density and depth are simply the perfect partner for the food. The tannin has calmed down, and the bottle disappears quite quickly. Anyone who has one and wants to pull the cork now should bring time or a decent slab of ox rib steak. Or both. Otherwise, it’s definitely not a mistake to forget this bottle for a few more years. The wine certainly won’t hold it against you and will bring joy for a very long time.