03 aug Grovel, grovel. Tuesday morning and, 24 hours after my email to them, M&S have just called to say that they are clean out of the Darting wine for the moment. SO sorry. Will update on availability as soon as possible. But in the meantime I suggest you check out the current German 2003 offers from Howard Ripley and OW Loeb – see the directory for details of how to contact them – as well as checking out Four Walls Wine and the Halifax Wine Company. Purple pagers can cross-check with my 2003 German tasting notes and scores.
04 aug 11.30 Have just been told by M&S head office that this wine will be in M&S stores again 'in early September'. Many apologies.
04 aug noon And now another M&S representative tells me there is enough of this wine in the stores for the next eight weeks! "They did have an issue with a few cases of the wine, which have been held back from stores, maybe this is where the confusion has come from. At the end of September, the vineyard is changing from Michelsberg to another one." Sorry to inflict this very small soap opera on you, but at least it illustrates some of the possible perils of making recommendations.
It’s certainly hot and humid where I am (the Languedoc) and I suspect many of you are currently experiencing the height of summer (apologies to all those in the cooler parts of the southern, and indeed northern, hemisphere). Even the freshest, unoaked, local southern French whites seem too heavy in this weather – and especially those grown in the record temperatures of 2003. I am mainlining German Riesling at the moment and visitors and house guests seem equally appreciative of the low alcohol, high acid and refreshing personality of my Mosels. Simpler 2001 Kabinetts are already delicious, some 2002s rather closed. Many palates are wary of any residual sweetness though, and this Dürkheimer Michelsberg Riesling Kabinett trocken 2003 is the wine I would serve them if I could get my hands on it. The only trouble is that it is available only at the winery itself and at Marks & Spencer stores in Britain, for the giveaway price of £5.99 a bottle – which is nothing for a wine with this integrity.
With all the fragrance of a currant bush, it is wonderfully fruity and yet taut, muscly and refreshingly tingly, almost like grapefruit syrup, yet is quite dry enough for any palate (and a wide range of foods) without being remotely painful. No hardness or excesses of acidity here, thanks mainly to the opulent character of 2003 in Germany, the Ferrari vintage, but also to the admirable skills of winemaker Helmut Darting. You can find out more about this first-rate estate at www.darting.de but basically this, like so many, is a small, quality-conscious, family-run estate, in this case in Bad Dürkheim in the Pfalz. Helmut is the first generation to be trained to vinify all the grapes grown on the estate's 35-odd acres into wine rather than sell some or all to the local co-op. He was also one of the more favoured pupils of the great Hans-Günther Schwarz of Müller Catoir nearby.
As US importer Terry Theise (see www.darting.de for details) points out, the Dartings have added some pretty smart sites from Basserman Jordan to their repertoire and this is an estate that is clearly going from strength to strength. The Dartings suggest that the wine closest to the M&S’s Michelsberg which is in commercial circulation in the US is their Dürkheimer Fronhof Riesling Kabinett trocken 2003 one of the dry wines which Terry T has so far allowed in to the US. More 2003s will be shipped there in September. I note that while the Michelsberg vineyard is loam and clay, the Fronhof is gravelly sand, so the American wine may be slightly lighter. All the better for temperatures in the high 80s, I’d say.
Beware some very heavy, oily dry German 2003s but these are very definitely not in that unappetising category. Drink these Darting dry Kabinetts by the bucket as an aperitif or with a wide range of summer foods – especially spicy ones and charcuterie.
Both wines are available at the winery, the Michelsberg for ¤4.80 a bottle and the Fronhof for ¤4.50.