Two Bottles Sander
We are just in time to finish the conclusion of last year's Maxime Open follow-up tasting with two bottles from Weingut Sander: Sauvignon Blanc 2023 and a Mettenheimer Löss Riesling 2023.
But now for real. It feels a bit like starting the assignment sheet the night before it’s due, just like back in university. And depending on the number of points at stake, you can chalk that up as either a particularly dumb idea or brilliant procrastination. In any case, we still have a set of bottles open for the Rheinhessen wrap-up from the last Maxime Open, and with the next round just having opened its doors last weekend, things are actually getting a bit tight now. So tonight we’re tasting a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of Riesling Mettenheimer Löss from Weingut Sander, both from 2023. The winery itself is also located in Mettenheim and is the oldest organic winery in Germany. The Sander family has been practicing organic viticulture here for three generations, with bottled wine sales dating back to the 1920s.
In the current generation, Stefan Sander is responsible for the wines. Initially, he actually didn’t want to become a winemaker, but after finishing secondary school he didn’t really have a clear plan, so he joined the family business for his first year of training and then acquired a taste for it. His international experience certainly had an impact, and Sander was also among the first in Rheinhessen to plant Sauvignon Blanc. And they didn’t stop at Sauvignon Blanc. By now, the portfolio has expanded to include various historic varieties such as Grünfränkisch or Franconian Burgundy. But that’s a story for another time, because today we’re sticking to Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. The Riesling from Mettenheimer Löss undergoes spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel tanks and matures on the lees in stainless steel as well. The Sauvignon Blanc is cold-macerated, pressed, and then also aged in stainless steel for three months.
The Sauvignon Blanc then smells like a creamy mix of passion fruit and yellow stone fruit. It’s certainly intensely aromatic but manages not to get on my nerves. That, for me at least, is the true art of Sauvignon Blanc. The absolutely uncompromising acidity surely helps, after every sip, it practically smooths out the wrinkles on your tongue. There’s a lot of power behind it, and the bit of passion fruit that does make it onto your taste buds really has to fight to be noticed. And maybe that’s precisely why I don’t just not mind this wine, I’m actually drinking it in alarmingly large gulps tonight.
Overnight, yeast shows up in the wine from somewhere. Maybe from the bottle of Riesling that was sitting next to it in the fridge, since on the first evening you didn’t notice any of it. Now it smells and tastes like freshly bottled wines often do. As a result, the fruit is more subdued and the newly emerged herbal notes as well. The acidity stays the same. If you give the wine plenty of air, you can swirl the yeast out of the glass again and have the wine from the first evening back. This is also the first time that such a yeast aroma has appeared in a wine on the second evening. You never stop learning, and the gulps are still just as big.
The Riesling is noticeably more restrained on the nose, coming with a slight yeast note from the start. It smells lightly floral, lightly yellow, and a bit like stone. On the palate there is structure and seemingly less acidity than in the Sauvignon Blanc. I can only find analytical data for the 2024 Sauvignon, so unfortunately I can’t back that up with hard facts, but in comparison the Riesling feels tamer. That’s rather unusual as well. With each sip, more structure builds on the palate, there’s a slight bitterness, stone, and with enough slurping, finally a good dose of fruit.
Here the yeast disappears overnight. Maybe it really did jump into the other bottle. And yes, we did pour again into fresh glasses to make absolutely sure we weren’t just bad at pouring. Now it’s creamier, with a bit of piña colada, coconut, pineapple, and noticeably firmer acidity than on the first night. It’s still rather restrained, sleek, cool, and will certainly benefit from a few years in the bottle. But I also think it goes really well with warm days like we’re having right now.