U.S. PREMIERE

2020 Blanc de Blancs - $45 a bottle
2020 Blanc de Noirs - $45 a bottle
2019 "Mythos" Brut Nature - $65 a bottle

I thought this was a fairly known quote, though when I did some quick online research I couldn't find any clear references to this sentence. (Where in the hell did I hear this line? Did I make it up?)

Either way, one must quickly admit that the idea is intellectually lazy - at worst just historically inaccurate and at best wildly simplistic.

The deeper context of the phrase, however, does have some basic merit. In the late 19th and early 20th century there was a huge amount of cultural and financial exchange between the western parts of Germany and the French sparkling wine regions. The German names one sees to this day sprinkled across Champagne - Krug, Heidsieck, Mumm to name but a few - speak to this shared cultural history.

One must also admit that whatever part of this cultural history the Germans have a right to share, well, this heritage was largely squandered in the post-war period as Germany shifted its production largely to cheap sparkling wines.

This is the first sin of German sparkling wine and the few estates that tried to make *serious* sparkling wines through these dark times could find little market or demand. The fact that estates like Lauer in the Saar (the Saar was one of the meccas of late 19th-century sparkling wine production) can release, to this day, sparkling wines from the 1980s and 1990s has less to do with any Dom Pérignon-esque idea of "plentitudes" or optimum cellaring for well-healed collectors and everything to do with a non-existent market.

The second sin of German sparkling wine, to my mind, is its ubiquitousness, even at the finest estates in Germany. In 15+ years of tasting, nearly every session begins with the off-handed remark, said almost as an afterthought: "Would you like to taste my sparkling wine?" And that's what most of these wines taste like: an afterthought. They were good enough - sometimes very good as this is a profound landscape for sparkling wines, as we will soon see - but rarely thrilling.

Then along comes a specialist, a true expert with deep experience (despite her youth, we will discuss this) who puts all her focus, passion, and intelligence toward crafting sparkling wines and the chasm that was once so painfully obvious between Champagne and German Sekt, almost instantaneously, disappears.

Today we celebrate this fact with the first-ever offer of Lena Singer-Fischer's sparkling wines in the U.S. These bottles have, in fact, just arrived and were only shown to industry buyers in New York on Monday for the first time. You can expect to see and hear more about these wines.

But today, if sparkling wine is of interest to you, these are nothing short of must-buys, for pleasure, for research. Note that while the chasm in quality between Champagne is beginning to erode, the pricing differential is more dramatic than ever. You can buy one bottle of each of the three cuvées on offer today and still be below the cost of many (most?) bottles of fine Champagne.

Lena's family's estate is in Ingelheim, a village in the northernmost part of the Rheinhessen. If the village's name sounds familiar, there are two possibilities. Either you've heard of the Imperial Palace built here by Charlemagne in the 8th century or you've become obsessed with the wines of Carsten Saalwaechter whose estate is also in Ingelheim. It has to be one or the other, right?

It is these same cool, limestone-riddled soils that Lena uses to supreme affect in her sparkling wines. Yet while Lena is in very close contact with her sites and vineyards, her brother manages the day-to-day at this small family estate and makes all of the still wines.

Lena, as it turns out, has a day job: She manages the family's Sektkellerei which produces sparkling wines for numerous estates around Germany.

And this, the unending diversity of projects, the various customer demands and expectations and, frankly, the sheer volume, means that Lena has had an extraordinary amount of experience for someone her age. She has, quite literally, done nearly everything one can do in the world of sparkling wine, hundreds of times for hundreds of different bottlings.

This - sparkling wine - is the beginning, middle, and end of her day, every day. This is not an exceptional line to write about someone in Champagne. It is a very rare situation in Germany.

The other serious advantage of her situation is that she can apply something of a spare-no-expense philosophy to her micro-production cuvées. This is where she can apply her experience, her passion, her focus, without having to worry about the considerable financial realities of making sparkling wine.

If all this seems basic, fundamental, essential, that's because it is... and you can taste it.

The sparkling wine revolution now taking place in Germany is really more of a renaissance. This is not a discovery for Germany; it is the return of quality sparkling wine for Germany and its winemakers. From Sekthaus Raumland to Griesel to Keller and Kissinger and the ambitious project Sektgut Christmann & Kaufmann, we are at the very beginning of a beautiful and delicious story.
So let's go; it's time for a toast.

Stephen and Robert

2020 Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut
The Blanc de Blancs is, of course, 100% Chardonnay. Sourced from sites in Ingelheim, the grapes were direct-pressed with fractioning used to focus on the cuvée. The end of the press, or taille, is not used. The BdB saw aging mostly (about 2/3) in used tonneaux with no fining or filtering. Post tirage, the wine spent 24 months on the lees and has a dosage of 3 grams. Our bottles were disgorged in May of 2024.

Champagne is, obviously, the reference point here, both in technique, philosophy, and profile. The BdB is dense and pushing, showing a saline, chalky citrus, highlighted by shortbread aromatics and complex spices, touches of floral aromatics and a really beautiful polished core of minerality. The mousse here is richer, the wine bright and structured, chewy. Superb.

2020 Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut
The Blanc de Noirs is mostly Pinot Noir with a bit of Schwarzriesling (aka Pinot Meunier). Sourced from sites in Ingelheim with fractioning used to focus on the cuvée. The end of the press, or taille, is not used. The BdN saw aging mostly in used tonneaux with a little bit of the Pinot seeing time in used barrique. None of the wines had any fining or filtering. Post tirage, the wine spent 24 months on the lees and has a dosage of 4 grams. The BdN showcases more spice and darker aromatics with notes of hazelnut and almond, richer pulses of citrus and quince. It feels more seamless perhaps, a bit more serpentine and longer than the BdB.

2019 "Mythos" Brut Nature
The "Mythos" is a selection of the top barrels and can contain all three varieties. The 2019 edition is around 40% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir, and the remainder Schwarzriesling. The exact blend of the "Mythos," however, may change year to year depending on the vintage's strengths and weaknesses. The "Mythos" is, in short, the best of the best. The wine sees additional aging - in this case 42 months (nearly four years) before disgorgement. There is no dosage here.

The "Mythos" is clearly the most resolved of the wines with an ultra-fine perlage, a stunningly integrated midpalate with fantastic complexity and definition. The wine isn't crystalline, exactly, but it seems to somehow refract flavors, to feel both essential and clear, yet also really complicated and nuanced. It it is unquestionably the most mineral of the wines, not aggressively structured but with a serious definition and edge, yet the finish is long and polished and tapers elegantly. This is a ridiculous bottle of sparkling wine.

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