2023 Lardot "Save the Mosel" White Blend - $24.99 a bottle

2023 Lardot Pinot Gris "der Narre" - $44.99 a bottle

2021 Lardot Riesling "der Hirt" Grand Cru Dry - $49.99 a bottle

2022 Lardot Riesling "der Bauer" Grand Cru Dry - $54.99 a bottle

2022 Lardot Riesling "die Winzerin" Grand Cru Dry - $59.99 a bottle

The above quote is from an essay Stein wrote, parts of which were translated for The Art of Eating (2010, No. 84) some fifteen years ago.

In this essay, Stein warns of the decline of the Mosel, and encourages a number of specific strategies. The piece notes: "[Stein] urges winemakers to pay above-market prices for the grapes purchased from steep sites and to seek out endangered vineyards."

There are a handful of growers who have made the financially questionable decision to work these terraced vineyards, to save the Mosel. A quick cataloging of growers from outside of the middle Mosel would include Moritz Hoffman from Vollenweider, the Melsheimers from Reil, Clemens Busch from Pünderich, and Stein himself in St. Aldegund. Yet these growers are, for the most part, based in and protecting their hometowns. They don't have to "seek out endangered vineyards" - they have them right in their own backyards.

Which is what makes what Philip Lardot and Rosalie Curtin are doing rather singular.  

They are seeking out the most endangered sites in the Mosel, old-vine treasures... and by working them, they are saving them. It's as simple as that.

To celebrate this fact - to scream about this fact - we have collaborated on the special "Save the Mosel" bottling of their basic white wine (photographed above). A blend of Riesling, Müller-Thurgau, and Auxerrois, the wine is nimble and garden-fresh, with airy citrus and a saline, slate-infused minerality. Bone dry and only 11% alcohol, consider this for your summer house white wine?

At $24.99 this is a delicious conversation starter of the stark reality I think few American wine lovers realize: Right now the Mosel is, in many villages, a dying place.
 
I have written a long treatise on this fact; you can read the full essay here.

You can buy a shirt here; you could buy a map of the Mosel here.

Yet what I really want to do is dive deeper into this landscape and the work of Lardot and Curtin.

Together, Lardot and Curtin are farming five hectares comprised from no fewer than twenty-six individual parcels, spread out over six villages, from Clemens Busch’s home village of Pünderich and Stein's St. Aldegund, to villages completely unknown to the American market such as Briedern, Briedel, Neef, and the once-famous Zell.

Of their holdings, roughly one-third, or nearly two hectares are steep, terraced vineyards, many of which have ungrafted vines trained on single poles planted well before the world wars. In these parcels, everything must be done by hand.
Part of what makes today's offer so special is we can present the first-ever bottling of Lardot's Grand Cru dry Palmberg Riesling - a vineyard site Lardot's mentor Stein has made famous. This wine is sourced from 80+ year-old vines, many of them ungrafted. The concentration, depth and length of the wine are, in short, profound. More details on all the wines are presented below.

Yet, if one part of this story is Lardot's traditionalism - all the wines on offer today are in essence single-vineyard Rieslings (there is one single-vineyard Pinot Gris) - the other part of the story is a redefining what the Mosel is, or can be.

To pigeonhole the wines of Lardot and Curtin as “natural wines” would be selling them short, if not blatantly misrepresenting them. This is a considered and thoughtful approach to a region (the Mosel) and a grape (Riesling) both of which shape wines of very high acidity. In order to sculpt this formidable acidity into something more balanced, growers such as Lardot and Curtin rely not on residual sugar (all their wines are bone dry) but on some degree of skin contact and a more extended élevage in smaller barrels.

Curiously, for me the closest reference point for these wines is the Jura, in their pronounced acidity and saturation, their slight oxidation and/or reduction, their saline quality. The comparison doesn't work totally, of course, but fans of many Jura whites will find a similar soul here.

If to some extent we are talking about a “new Mosel,” it’s also important to realize that in some ways, this new style of Mosel winemaking may have echoes from the famously dry Mosel wines of the late 19th century. This was, after all, a period long before filters and the ability to block malolactic conversions.

I had a conversation with Vinous’ David Schildknecht about this idea and he pointed out the following. In so far as growers like Lardot and Curtin recognize and value selection massale (which most certainly they do in this old-vine part of the Mosel), in so far as they follow viticultural regimens less influenced by the technologies of the 20th century, in so far as they have a rather relaxed attitude toward malolactic conversions and value the delicacy and lightness of the Mosel, all of these characteristics would be applicable to the fin-de-siecle Mosel.

While a longer élevage could be seen as a throwback to a more “traditional” winemaking, in the late 19th century of Mosel wines, most of these wines were actually bottled quite early. Relying on spontaneous fermentation could also be seen as a “traditional” way of winemaking, yet Schildknecht pointed out to me that cultured yeasts were already in widespread use by the late 19th century in certain parts of the Mosel.

In the end my point is less that this “new” style of Mosel winemaking is exactly like it was 100+ years ago. While I don’t think it’s unreasonable to speculate that some of Lardot and Curtin’s wines may taste more like the wines made in the Mosel 150 years ago than, say, the contemporary Prädikat (off-dry) wines of many famous estates, this isn’t really my point either.

My point is more that culture is alive, that tradition is not static and is always evolving, changing, right under our noses. I strongly believe this style of winemaking in the Mosel has a powerful precedent and an influential future ahead of it. This is the authentic avant-garde.

There is no question to me that these outsiders, farming these forgotten old vines in the poorest and least-known villages of the Mosel, working the terraces and dedicating themselves to this beautiful yet financially difficult existence, they are the cavalry the Mosel needs so desperately right now.

And the most meaningful way to save the Mosel, to keep the cavalry coming, is to buy the wines, to drink them, to bring the story of the Mosel to our dinner tables...  "if not for the lovers of Mosel Riesling," as Stein writes, "then at least to honor the old Riesling vines themselves, which have earned a chance to be protected from thorns."
More information on all the wines below. Thank you for caring.

Stephen and Robert

2023 Lardot "Save the Mosel" (Kontakt White) - $24.99
This is a beautiful Mosel white. In a way it's quite traditional and shows some of the general citrus and stone fruit that Mosel Riesling is known for. Yet it is also subtly floral, with a prominent garden and herbal quality, a stony, mineral water freshness - it is brisk and airy, with a very light feel. This should be your house summer white wine. Made of 50% Riesling, 35% Müller Thurgau, and 15% Auxerrois, the fruit was crushed and macerated for 8-12 hours, with seven months of ageing in barriques/tonneau. It was bottled unfiltered with lower levels of sulfur.

2023 Lardot Pinot Gris "der Narre" - $44.99
This is an incisive Pinot Gris, rigorous, rather sharp and cutting with delicate crushed-berry red fruit, a great herbal bitterness and a long stony finish. Der Narre, meaning “The Jester,” is a single-vineyard Pinot Gris from Zeller Domherrenberg. The vineyard is situated at the very top of a steep slope deep into the side valley from the village of Zell, higher elevation than any of their other sites. Younger vines grow on slate and quartzite. Hand destemmed and fermented on skins for 14 days, with ten months of ageing in barriques. The wine was bottled unfiltered with lower levels of sulfur.

2021 Lardot Riesling "der Hirt" - $49.99
From the electric 2021 vintage comes a saturating and wildly complex dry Riesling. Der Hirt is sourced from a south-facing, slate-soiled vineyard called the Valwiger Herrenberg. Der Hirt means "the shepherd" and is named after the site it's sourced from, the “Herrenberg,” or, “hill of the shepherd.” There are two parcels here that Lardot is working (0.21 hectares combined), both terraced vineyards with ungrafted vines from 30 to 75 years old. All the wine was put into 225 and 500 liter barrels for 12 months on full lees. The wine was bottled unfiltered with lower levels of sulfur.

2022 Lardot Riesling "der Bauer" - $54.99
Der Bauer, meaning “The Farmer,” is a single-vineyard Riesling harvested from seven small parcels ranging in size from 400 to 900 square meters in the St. Aldegunder Himmelreich vineyard. This is a profound dry Riesling; agile, salty with saturating green apple skin, pithy citrus and complex herbal notes. The tension and pull, the rush of the acidity is thrilling. The vine ages vary here from 70 to 100+ years old, with grey and blue slate. This is a cooler site, with an eastern exposition. The name der Bauer is a nod to the people of the village of St. Aldegund: this village is one of the few that rejected the modernization and expansion that occurred in this part of the Mosel between the 1980s-2000s that implemented roads, removed dry-wall terraces, and replanted ungrafted vines with grafted. It is because of these villagers’ resistance that Lardot and Curtin are able to farm these ungrafted vines today. The vineyards are also interspersed with small orchards and vegetable gardens, creating a healthy polyculture, unlike the stark monoculture seen in much of the Mosel. Der Bauer, “The Farmer,” seemed only fitting. Crushed and macerated overnight before pressing, fermentation in barrel on full lees, one rack barrel-to-barrel off of full lees onto fine lees after 18 months, bottled after 22 months of ageing in barrique and tonneau.

2022 Lardot Riesling "die Winzerin" - $59.99
Die Winzerin, translated as the feminine form of ‘winegrower’ or ‘vigneron,’ is a Riesling from the vineyard of Palmberg-Terrassen in St. Aldegund. This is the first-ever release from Lardot's 0.3 hectare plot which he acquired in 2021. If "der Bauer" is agile and nervy, "die Winzerin" is deep, mysterious... the acidity is tangible and strong, yet the overall effect is of a calming citrus, layers of mist and saline... and a just outrageous length. This is a young wine that will reward time in the cellar or a good decant - but this is one of Lardot's greatest wines, of that there can be no doubt. The name die Winzerin is an homage to the winegrower and to the historical significance of Palmberg itself. Selecting the feminine form of the word was a conscious choice made to recognize and give thanks to the many women that historically have gone unrecognized for labor both in the vineyard and in the winery over past generations. Much of the work in single-post sites such as this one has been done by women, and women only, for generations, with very little mention in literature or even in modern-day descriptions of the Mosel. The drawing on the label is loosely based, in fact, on a photograph of Stein's mother Erna - an homage of sorts. Crushed and macerated a few hours before pressing, fermentation in barrel on full lees, racked once barrel-to-barrel after 18 months, bottled after 22 months, aged in tonneau. Bottled unfiltered with lower levels of sulfur.

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