TN: 2016 Weingut Clemens Busch Pündericher Marienburg Riesling Kabinett

I’ve been drinking way too few Mosel prädikat wines lately but today the dinner required it so I went ahead and reached for this one. I’ve had some Clemens Busch wines before and remember liking them but can’t say I really know this producer. I think this one was really superb and find it hard to agree with the ”lack of acidity” comments on CT. Sure there are Kabs out there where the acidity is felt more strongly but when a wine evaporates as quickly as this one I can’t complain at all. I am really digging the sponti style here.

  • 2016 Weingut Clemens Busch Pündericher Marienburg Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (17.9.2021)
    Very attractive on the nose: sponti funk, whipped cream, green apple, wild strawberry and herbal hints. Expressive, detailed. On the palate comes off as gentle and comfortably mouthfilling. Concentrated for sure with the kind of softness that could make one think it lacks acidity but I feel like there is plenty of it - more than enough - although hiding a bit. It is by no means a chiselled, streamlined sculpture but it charms you by being impeccably balanced and highly harmonious with a very long, fresh and tangy finish. I feel like there is quite a bit of residual sugar and the 7.5% ABV sure hints at it but it is not at all sugary or hard to digest. If anything I find it very easy to enjoy as the fruit expression is on the restrained side. Just delicious as it is but of course it could go for decades.

Posted from CellarTracker

Sounds great. I have a small selection of CB wines. Need to pull a couple soon.

I had a discussion about this producer with OttoF. He has lukewarm feelings despite being a big MSR stan, mine albeit based on a rather small sample are very positive. To each their own I guess.

I was very lukewarm until around 3-4 years ago.

How come? Changes in the winemaking?

I’m not 100% sure. I had only tasted sporadically over the prior decade. I was very taken with the 2019 auction wines though and bought a few. Interestingly they were absent from the auction for most of that decade.

I might try and visit soon.

I went through my notes just to get a better picture why I had such tepid impression. After all, my sample size was pretty small as well (7 wines).

What I’ve had:
Spätburgunder Sekt
Riesling Trocken O - C-B’s attempt at orange wines
Riesling Kabinett 2015
Riesling Pundericher Kabinett 2016 and 2017
Two GGs.

Well, the bubbly was just lousy. Dull and stuffy, lacking fruit, slightly funky. Felt like it wasn’t made with fruit of the highest quality, but instead a product of grapes unfit for other use.

The Trocken O was just lacking in fruit, flavor, acidity, color, everything. Except for bitterness - that it had more than enough. This didn’t feel like an orange wine at all, but neither did it feel like a Riesling. A very underwhelming wine by all accounts.

All the Kabinetts were drunk very young, at approx. 2 years after the vintage. The regular Kabinett was just very simple and boring, lacking the thrill and joyous fruit young Kabinetts show, and (unsurprisingly) showing no depth or the complexity the aged Kabinetts show. The Pundericher Kabinetts were just lean, closed and austere, badly lacking in fruit department. It might be that they were just opened way too young (which I acknowledged in my TNs) but at the time they were just very angular and underwhelming - in the same way the C-B Spätburgunder Sekt and Trocken O were - which seemed to just fit the producer profile at that point.

Although I’m more a Kabinett than a GG guy, I still have no problems to admit that both the GGs I’ve had (Marienburg Rothenpfad Riesling 2008 and Marienburg Fahrlay Riesling 2015) were simply excellent.

So, in retrospect, I am willing to accept that C-B makes classy Kabinetts that require many years to come around but are just very closed in their youth, but based on my current experience I’d recommend to concentrate on C-B GGs if on something. I’m more than happy to taste more and challenge my views, but I hope people understand that at the current success rate of 29% I’m not that eager to buy more C-B wines with my own money. :smiley:

I’m a big fan of Clemens Busch, although like Otto I have a preference for the GGs. The GGs are for me unique among Mosel GGs - more like the wines of the pfalz in terms of their flowery flavor profile, but with a lightness and delicacy that is pure Mosel. The reserve wines clearly need time, and I think the way to get into the these is to try the plain old fahrlay GG. I think it often drinks the best of a very strong group.

For the pradikat wines, like Russell I’ve thought the recent auction wines were very much worth buying. I buy the non auction pradikat wines as well, and I don’t think of them as either simple or boring but there are producers I think are doing better at most pradikat levels. I found the 2019 marienburg kabi to be a bit heavy for a kabi.
A

I always like a bit of confirmation bias… I really like the CB GG wines and was a bit worried about my palate, but I feel much better!



Given the restrained aromatics and very high concentration I can easily believe that this 2016 of mine was no charmer in its immediate youth and no wonder really if it would not stand out amongst 300 other Kabinetten, as without a doubt there are dozens of lighter, flashier and more electric wines present. Obviously I realize that what you had was the “generic” Pundericher bottling and not this one but I suppose stylistic similarities are likely, especially as far as the spontaneous fermentation goes.

I think people who find C-B to be a top estate are generally talking about the wines from Marienburg. It’s fair to judge on what one tastes of course, but I wouldn’t over- extrapolate across the range based on an entry level village kabi. It’s just gonna be a different kettle of fish from the wines from Marienburg, GG or otherwise.

One important shift to highlight in Clemens’ wines is when he stopped including botrytis elements in his dry wines. (à la Heymann Lowenstein as well…).
This occured in the early 2010s, i’m not exactly sure which year, but…
It is a shift that I personally prefer, with the resultant wines being super crystalline and pure.
From 2015 onward, he is dialed in, making phenomenally good wines.
The pradikat wines are very good, up and down the hierarchy.
His Falkenlay Auslese wines in 2015 and 2019 are knockouts, with some terrific GKA as well.
But the main focus and heart of his work are the dry wines, GGs and the red/gray/blue slate village wines. That should be one’s measuring stick if you want to konw the estate’s main identity and biggest strength.
What can I say…i’m a big big fan, and one of his biggest US importers…
As to the orange wine, sulfurless wines, and other side shows, I don’t pay them much attention. They’re not my thing, and a minor side bar curiosity relative to the total production.
Fwiw, the full range of '19s are in stock. Great wines by any measure, in my not so humble opinion.