Seckinger

Seckinger’s wines have some producers in southern Pfalz scratching their heads, meanwhile Germany’s new generation of sommeliers are sipping gleefully. Was geht? Here’s a biodynamic Pfalz producer taking cues from the natural Chablis and Jura ouillé or topped-up contingent, as it digs into the terroir of their historic vineyards of mostly red sandstone (buntsandstein). Aber hallo! Seckinger’s making some outstandingly rakish Riesling – bone dry, hazy and savoury!

Three Brothers (and lots of family and friends):
What’s lovely to see at Seckinger is the family and thirsty friends pitching in to help during harvest, and throughout the year. The three Seckinger brothers work on all aspects of the winery, with Lukas and Philipp mostly in the vineyards, and Jonas taking the lead for crafting the wines in the cellar.

Falstaff Magazine says about Jonas Seckinger: You can confidently count him among the protagonists of a precocious and well-trained generation of winegrowers who know exactly what they want: his wines already look amazingly mature and stylish. Seckinger produced his first wine at the age of 17, initially experimenting with an old wooden press in his parents’ garage.

On a recent visit, Jonas wanted to check in on some of Seckinger’s cru bottlings with some of his favourite producers on the table (De Moor, Tissot, Domaine de Saint Pierre). As we tasted at the picnic table outside the family house, his mother and father brought us an impromptu dinner of traditional Leberknödel, Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut. You could see it in Jonas’ eyes, as he oscillated among the wines. He was searching; searching for his wine to move him as much as those other wines on the table did, and searching for what his different vineyards and soils wanted to express.  It’s rare to be in the company of someone so young making such stellar wines, and he knowns that his family’s resources were the key.

2020  Crus:

Seckinger’s wines continue to thrill. I knew from the first tasting appointment we had, sitting at an old picnic table (with my fav Sophienwald glasses), that Jonas Seckinger was trying to make wines that spoke to him like the wines on his window sill: a Chablis from De Moor, a Savagnin Jura from St. Pierre, a Barolo from Principiano, and a Pinot Noir from Baden that I ain’t letting outta the bag quite yet.

Seckinger follows each barrel and likes to play with flor and oxidative winemaking. That said, this style is here is bone dry, and almost sun-kissed (picked a bit early). Instead of the classic Riesling descriptors of electric/angular/chiseled, there’s more nuance and agility here to the wines. The acid, thankfully, doesn’t scream. These wines purr.

I have a favorite bottling from the 2020 vintage, but I am curious what yours is now, and what all of ours might be in a few years. All of the wines here are en pointe  – drinking extremely well now. Special thanks to PV’s native German dude, Tim Edlich. We compared tasting notes, and he was invaluable to get the right Q’s and A’s to the Seckinger family.
EI.

Seckinger ‘Petershöhle’ Pfalz 2020 
Petershöhle, literally Peter’s Cave, is the pride of the Seckinger family. Over 30 years ago, Papa Seckinger began restoring these ancient terraces that lie in the upper most part of the larger Herrgottsacker premier cru. His task was huge, but the results are impressive.

The woodland air here is cool and invigorating, only a chiaroscuro of sun reaches the mostly red sandstone soils. Crisscrossed by large fruit trees and steep embankments, a thick forest frames this special vineyard, which looks down on the Pfalz town of Deidesheim below.

The Petershöhle is the most intellectually demanding Rieslings from Seckinger: firm, concentrated and quite wild. Also in 2020, the Petershöhle has again received several days of maceration, the whole grapes were mashed with the feet in the harvest boxes and pressed after 2-3 days.

Botanical, sage and thyme; kaffir lime, verbena; a finish that starts knife like and then becomes a spicy capiscum – Tourbillion fireworks – finale. Wild shit, indeed.

Seckinger ‘Kieselberg Wurzelecht’ Pfalz 2020
The location Kieselberg lies on a high – sun filled – plateau above Deidesheim on red sandstone and pebble soils.  The location usually provides wines with concentration and power. At Seckinger, however, the Kieselberg is filigree, in fact it’s one of their quietest Rieslings.

However, this is not due to Jonas Seckinger’s hand, but rather to a 60 year old native rootstock vineyard, which channels the aromatic fineness of the sandstone soils. Whole-cluster pressing, used large barrels, and left on the gross lees for at least a year. Strangely, even with this hands off, crush and forget technique, Kieselberg’s fineness still shines.

Just ripe madrines on a salted caramel wave; suave, tapered and slowly-drawn-down-length. If you’re looking for a Juraesque fix – the just topped up and finely oxidised type – you got it here – with a Riesling twist.

Seckinger ‘Ölberg’ Pfalz 2020 
The Königsbacher Ölberg crus from two location: the northern extension of the famous Idig Grosses Gewächs / Grand Cru, and Seckinger’s holdings in Mittelhaardt’s most southern part. Located close to the forest and always exposed to the wind, nevertheless warm, concentrated wines with melting and juiciness are produced on the Ölberg. On the one hand, this is due to the higher proportion of lime in the soil and the more southern orientation of the location in general.

Juicy and mineral; hite Japanese mushrooms. Tangerine; kumquat. Hint of caramel covered green apple.

Seckinger ‘Gottsacker’ Pfalz 2020
The grapes for the Seckinger Riesling Gottsacker actually come from Seckinger’s Deidesheimer Herrgottsacker holdings, the Pfalz’s largest single vineyard. Due to the natural vinification – without fining, filtration or sulfurization (except directly for filling) – this in itself very high-quality Riesling, yet may not be marketed with the official vineyard designation, but only as a Landwein. Due to its extent, the location Herrgottsacker is characterised by very different terroirs. Half of the grapes here come from the plots near the forest with a cooler microclimate, which provide freshness and a good acid structure – the other from the significantly warmer core layer brings maturity and strength to the wine. The latter was pressed in whole grape pressing, the former with a certain maceration time. The spontaneous fermentation was very slow and the wine spent a whole 16 months on the full yeast.

Winter green and Winesap apple from fresh herbal side; underripe pineapple from warmer site (it’s cool climate riesling after all!). Chalky and lemon rind finish.

That wraps it up. As a side note, Jonas says they are not part of the VdP, but wouldn’t necessarily be against it, so some of the plots below fall within the GG (Grosses Gewächs / Grand Cru), such as Kielselberg,  and Idig, and many of the best plots of Erstes Gewächs / Premier Cru. So, in short, we’ll see if the VdP asks Seckinger to join, and if they accept. Pro or against the VdP, you can’t beat their excellent ‘VdP’ mapping of the crus.

Vineyards and Soils:
Deidesheim is the small charming town in the southern Pfalz, where you’ll see a number of wineries have their cellar and shop.  Jonas is a garagiste but joined us for a coffee there as a starting point to explore the various vineyards that he and his family has bought and rejuvenated since 2012. From the beginning, Secknger re-invested their resources to acquire and restore historic vineyards using biodynamic farming.  Currently, they have a total of about 20 hectares, spread out in several small single vineyards, with a mix of red sandstone, marl, and limestone soils. Some of their vineyards are quite idyllic; abutting woods and on cooler slopes, such as Petershöhle (Peter’s Cave) and Einstal.

The elixir of Riesling grown on limestone is well know, and it’s a winning combination, where the fruit takes on an extroverted dimension with precision and depth to the chiselled fruit. Seckinger has some limestone vineyards (e.g. their aptly named cru Kalkofen), but what really sets them apart is their work tuning the vines and wines grown on sandstone soils, which produces a Riesling with introverted, muted fruit notes, with an airy, mystical-mineral complexity. For those quiet enough to listen, the wines from the sandstone soils can be breathtaking. Their Riesling R bottling is a case study in sandstone soils.

We’ll digging  more into the vineyards, soils, and wines in a month or two when the cru wines are released. For now, we’ve composed a cheat sheet to get started and to give an idea of the breadth of their vineyard holdings. *

Vinification:
These are not wines for those that enjoy the so-called ‘traditional’ German style, often with at least some residual sugar and a more fruit-forward style. Seckinger wines are vinified bone dry. What’s more, the moniker of ‘natural winemaker’ or ‘avant-guard winemaker’ irritates Jonas. He’s proud of them working biodynamically, but he’s not dogmatic about issues such as sulphur, and prefers to talk about his craft as cellar master:

Our goal is to harvest all wines at a maximum of 90 °Oechsle, so that we do not exceed 12.5 percent alcohol by volume…Then, I must follow the wines, barrel by barrel.

Whole-clusters maceration for 10-12 hours; then it’s free run juice and a continuing of the spontaneous fermentation. There is nothing technical going on here; there are no temperature controlled tanks. Wine and lees are transferred to barrels made from a relatively unknown small local cooperage called Michel Gieß. Depending on the barrel, some are topped up, others are left to create a controlled oxidation. Natural decant and sulphur addition take place before bottling. The sulphur is not demonized here, but reduced to an absolute minimum and only used when the wines demand it. Jonas says he works:

by intuition…smelling and tasting the wines sometimes daily, and making topped-up decision, barrel by barrel, every four weeks.  I think this craft of élevage brings out the most terroir and the most interesting wines in the bone-dry, high-acid, low-alcohol, some controlled oxidation style that Seckinger is known for. My grandfather had this kind of attentiveness.

We’re obviously huge fans here at PV and have been for years. We’re super excited to have Seckinger part of our portfolio.

*Vineyard // soil // VDP Cru Designation // bottling

Reiterpfad // sand, red sandstone and isolated limestone deposits  // VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS or Grand Cru // Riesling R; Chardonnay //
Linsenbusch // sandstone and marl// VDP.ERSTE LAGE or Premier Cru // Riesling R; Chardonnay
Nußbien // sandstone and marl / /VDP.ERSTE LAGE or Premier Cru// Riesling R; Chardonnay
Ölberg // mostly limestone and marl, with just some red sandstone // VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS or Grand Cru
Kirchenberg (Hill of Church) //
Petershöhle (Peter’s Cave) //
Einstal (One Valley) // NA
Mäushöhle (Mouse Cave) //
Paradiesgarten (Paradise’s Garden) //
Langenmorgen (Long Morgen; morgen is an ancient version of unit of length, because it was bigger than one morgen, the name Long morgen or Langenmorgen was given) //
Kalkofen (Chalk Kiln) // Chalk //
Kieselberg (Pebble Mountain) //
Kapellenberg // Sandy loam and lime stone soils // Pinot Noir