How a 1978 Clone Brought Germany to My Glass!
-from mosel to okanagan: A riesling’s long journey
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Drink and you shall find…
Ah, I think you got that wrong.
“No, drink and you shall find…” is what I wanted to say.
Sounds like you have a problem.
Drink and you shall find … a story for this week’s post!
Isn’t this the case every week?
I have mentioned that some weeks I am disappointed in the wine I planned to write about. This was the case this week. So, I had to keep looking … which meant I really had no idea where things were going, and what I would find, or what story would evolve from it.
It all started with a bottle of Sperling Old Vines Riesling 2017 my husband bought that I found in the fridge. We decided to pair it with nachos.
As I evaluated, I was SO impressed!
The depth, intensity, and complexity were absolutely outstanding.
Two things are going on with that wine. One, it is from vines that were planted in 1978 – so 47 years ago at the time of this publication and 40 years old at this wine’s harvest time. It is at this time that vines can start to decrease their yield and produce grapes with higher concentration.
The next thing is that this wine is from the 2017 harvest, meaning it is starting to show some bottle age. With bottle ageing, wines will start showing what are called tertiary notes.
Does that mean there are primary and secondary notes too?
You bet. Primary notes are aromas and flavors that come from the grape itself. These are typically fruit, mineral, herbal, and some spice - particularly pepper notes. Secondary notes come from one of three winemaking processes:
Oak ageing – brings out flavors from the wine being in contact with the wood itself – typically baking spice, vanilla, coconut, cedar, smoke, toast, chocolate etc.
Lees ageing – lees are the spent yeast cells. Once the yeast cells have eaten all the sugar, they die. Typically, the winemaker will remove the gross (large) lees (remaining dead yeast particles). Sometimes they will leave the fine lees in contact with the wine. The interaction between the wine and lees during this time is called autolysis, giving flavors of yeast, dough, bread, toast, pastry, graham wafer, biscuit, yogurt etc. This is what gives Champagne its bready notes.
Malolactic fermentation or conversion – is where malic acid, one of the acids in wines, is allowed to convert to lactic acid. Malic acid tends to be tart - think green apples, while lactic acid is what is found in dairy. So cream, butter, and cheese are flavors that can be attributed to malolactic conversion.
Lastly tertiary notes are from bottle ageing, which relates to this week’s featured wine. During this time, the fruit flavors from the primary notes change to cooked or dried versions - for example, fresh strawberry notes may evolve to stewed or dried strawberry flavors. Flavors of nuts, chocolate, coffee, and caramel can also become present.
Other flavors can develop from bottle ageing, particularly in wine made with quality fruit and winemaking. For example for whites, flavors of ginger, baking spice, marmalade, and honey develop, while for reds, leather, tobacco, forest floor, mushroom etc.
Yum! Now back to the post … what else did you learn?
These old vines have an additional story to tell!
And you are all about storytelling!
Indeed, I think it is so cool and confirms how small the wine world is! This was the unexpected portion of this post that “I received”!
Let’s head to Germany where Riesling is their signature grape. Now let’s zone in specifically on the Mosel valley wine region with its vineyards on either side of the Mosel River. Artifacts imply 2000 years of wine growing history here. The Mosel flows 242 km into the Rhine River – a river you may have heard of. Mosel is one of Germany’s prime wine regions – my personal favorite.
In 1947 Nicolaus Weis founded the St. Urbans-Hof estate winery and a vine nursery. With many old vineyards, some dating back to 1905, St Urbans-Hof can preserve genetics from old Riesling in the Mosel making them an ideal establishment to provide vines to the wine world.
It is from this nursery that the Riesling vines planted in the Okanagan in 1978 originated. They were Weis clone, also known as the Clone B-21.
I am confused. They are creating new clones?
Let’s take a step back. During cell division during plant growth, sometimes random mutations in the genetic code occur.
Just like in humans!
Exactly.
Many of these mutations have no effect on the vine, but some will. The grapes may be a different size, the skin thickness may change, the plant’s resistance or sensitivity to disease may change, etc. If the changes are favorable, vine nurseries or grape growers will propagate these, and a new clone is born.
If the mutation makes significant changes to the vine’s behavior and grapes, a new grape variety is classified and given its own name - think Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Meunier (aka Meunier) being Pinot Noir mutations. You may remember my past posts on mutation.
So, this means that vines continue to evolve, so there could be improvements in future vines into new clones, even just superior versions of the same clone!
Exactly. And of course, the opposite is also true. Some cell division negatively impacts the vine, and these are ideally not propagated.
So back to Mosel – Nicolaus Weis DID discover a new clone – a particularly good strain that he called Clone 21-B - the Weis clone - which was planted in the Okanagan at three different wineries: Sperling, Tantalus, and St. Hubertus. Funny enough, they were all planted on the same day on May long weekend in 1978 – the first point in the year when spring frosts are considered unlikely to occur in the region.
It is from these German vines from this clone that the wine I found in the fridge came from!
Gnarly!
Exactly! Drink and you shall receive!
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Sperling Old Vines Riesling 2017 from Okanagan Valley, Canada
Style: Aromatic white wine
Varieties: Riesling
This pronounced intensity, dry wine has many levels of green apple, pear, lemon (zest, cooked, confit, dried, meringue), orange zest, marmalade, grapefruit, melon, lime, unripe peach, cantaloupe, wet stones, petrol, honey, almonds, brown sugar, toffee. This wine has tart qualities yet is smooth and round with highly concentrated flavors and a long finish.
Best pairings: Scallops with citrus glaze, Poached salmon, Grilled pork chops with citrus marinade, Schnitzel, Quinoa salad with citrus dressing, Soft cheese: creamy goat cheese or brie served with marmelade.
Serving Temperature: 6-8 degrees Celsius
Serving Tips: Enjoy!
Apologies: I have had technical difficulties with my compilation - please stay tuned. I have compiled all my wine recommendations in one place. I will do my best to keep this up to date. I also include the link(s) to the article in which the wine was featured.
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SOURCES:
Goodgrog, J. at (no date a) John Schreiner on wine, Search results for sperling. Available at: https://johnschreiner.blogspot.com/search?q=sperling (Accessed: 22 January 2025).
Goodgrog, J. at (no date b) Reflections on old vines riesling, Reflections on Old Vines Riesling. Available at: https://johnschreiner.blogspot.com/2013/04/reflections-on-old-vines-riesling.html (Accessed: 22 January 2025).
Harding, J. and Robinson, J. (2023) The oxford companion to wine. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
MacNeil, K. (2022) The wine bible. New York, NY: Workman Publishing.
Regions (2024) Wines of Germany. Available at: https://winesofgermany.co.uk/regions/ (Accessed: 22 January 2025).
Sperling Vineyards (2025) Wines of British Columbia. Available at: https://winebc.com/winery/sperling-vineyards/ (Accessed: 22 January 2025).
Wine & Spirit Education Trust (2021) D3: Wines of the World - An accompaniment to the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines. Version 1.2. London: Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Gosh I do love German wines! Great article!
Great article. Does Eric remember where he bought this?