Peter Wagner - Oberrotweil Chardonnay 2021

Not much about wine is truly objective. When the winemaker sends it to the laboratory, I assume that the results from more than one lab will be more or less identical, setting aside small variations in the samples. The vineyard location is clearly known, at least to the person who harvested it there. You can look up what the weather was like in the growing year, if a station close enough recorded measurements. When the grapes were picked and what exactly happened in the cellar should also be fairly straightforward to reconstruct, at least for the one working in the cellar. When it was bottled, when it went to the retailer, and when it arrived here. When I opened the bottle, how warm or cold the wine was at pouring, which glass was used, and how long it stood here before opening. All of that can still be tracked. But then, things start to thin out. How well the bark kept the liquid inside is visible, but how well it kept the gases out is already trickier.

But what is, in the end, really, truly important is: Is it delicious? And that’s the moment when most objectivity needs to be kindly thrown overboard. It already starts with whether the wrong pollen is in the air and your nose is stuffed, or a cold, or, God forbid, a root day (not sure if this is even called like this in English, but it is a pun on people thinking that there are root days where things dont taste well). On top of that, there are indirect factors: how much do I like the label, am I in a good mood today, do I like the winemaker? For my better half, it often takes just a touch of dialect from the very south and the way they say “ch”, but I’m not going to cast the first stone. For me, it’s just the Swabian accent. So Peter Wagner, from the very south, had it fairly easy across the table at the 7th edition of Schmelz, Perlage & Bodensatz. And after such an evening, does the wine taste better? Does it taste better after a holiday memory, a vineyard visit, a good conversation at a fair? I can’t deny that it has an influence, and I’m glad I don’t have to ignore it, because after all, I’m not handing out points or claiming to make objective buying recommendations. So, consider yourselves warned, because today’s wine (and often otherwise) is poured into the glass with fond memories. That won’t be without influence.

We’ve had Peter Wagner here before, just not the Chardonnay, so picking this one made sense to round out the varietal lineup. Even with two more years under its belt since the last bottles, the winery can still be called young. The vines for today’s wine grow around Oberrotweil and the estate itself is also in this part of Vogtsburg. Maybe because we’re just back from a few days in Freiburg, I’m reminded that we really need to spend a few days there too. The village wines, including the Oberrotweil Chardonnay, form the middle tier of the quality pyramid. The grapes grow on loess and volcanic soils and are matured on full lees for just under a year in used oak barrels. There’s no fining or filtration.

The wine smells nutty and stony. There’s a bit of yellow stone fruit, but it’s not really fruity. There’s spice and, briefly, some alcohol, which gives way to peach and nectarine on the nose. A lot happens with the Chardonnay in the first few minutes of swirling. It gets creamier on the nose but develops more tension with each swirl on the palate. Clear, crisp, straightforward and much leaner in taste than the nose would suggest, and with much more intensity. I find it smells, despite being a 2021, a bit warm, but it doesn’t taste warm at all. The structure is great and it drinks really well.

It stays that way on the second evening. The nose remains nutty and mineral with a touch of creaminess. It leans much more on its herbal structure than fruit. The acidity keeps pushing strongly. But by now, that creaminess from the nose has also settled in on the palate. That’s new and wasn’t there the first evening. My better half complains a bit that the wine isn’t hitting the mark today. She’s not sure why, because it’s actually right up her alley. I’m telling you, root day. Maybe it’s also just the leftover sauerkraut juice from shortly before. I lack personal experience, because only crazies drink sauerkraut juice. But that’s how it goes, and as the evening wears on, it starts to appeal to her again. Rightly so, because the acidity and structure on the tongue are fantastic, even though the gap between mouth and nose definitely widens. The nose gets more stony, leaner, sort of briny with salty lemon, and if you think about salted lemons, you feel like you taste the salt on your tongue. This is a great Chardonnay that will surely get even better over the next few years. The stability over the two evenings and the small changes with each sip and sniff give hope that there’s much more to observe here in the years ahead.

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