"They think: how can that Twardowski, who hasn't had any wine training, make such wine costing over 70 euros from young vines? Suddenly, you are competition!"

Just a decade prior, Daniel Twardowski, the German wine trader turn winemaker in the Mosel was once a beloved customer at his fellow German wineries, often known for spotting a great undervalued bottle and holding the total conviction to buy as much of it as he could so as to surface them for a solid profit, was now often being watched with suspicion from the moment he entered the cellars. "I find that a shame, but oh well," sighs Daniel Twardowski as he goes on to state, "Pinot does not forgive mistakes. [On sticking to just a minuscule 3 hectares of vines] Only then can I do everything with maximum attention and care. The wine must reflect what I want to see, otherwise I wouldn't attach my name to it. I never start something to be second and I say very honestly: I want to make the best Spätburgunder in Germany. That is the goal."

For someone whose ambition - and he's surely well on his way there as is - is to make Germany's best Pinot Noir (which goes by Spätburgunder locally; "Spät" to mean "Late", and "Burgunder" to mean "Burgundy", in reference to the varietal's later ripening compared to others, and also it's historical origins from Burgundy, France), Twardowski certainly doesn't bear quite the lineage or markings to match. The first-generation winegrower, now in his late 40's, had moved to Obermosel (from Bremen to the north) as a teen together with his parents, both of whom have nothing to do with wines, his father being a sea captain. Later in college he would study Business Administration and would get into the swing of trading and collecting wines, first to fund his own curiosity and subsequently to pay for his travels to Burgundy, which he had fallen in love with.

Pinot Noir (or Spatburgunder) grown on Mosel's slate soils.

A wine lover? Sure. Making some of the most cult Pinot's in Germany today? Surprising to say the least!

Yet, even without formal training, Twardowski had something much more valuable: passion.

The Unlikely Man Who Skipped Discotheques In The Pursuit Of Wine

Twardowski was a true epicurean. He loved food and wine, and would devote much thought to pursuing it and understanding it. "I don’t have an expensive car, watches, or clothes, but I “spend” my money," says Daniel. And so from his early experiences having moved to the Saar with his parents and observing that most of his classmates from the area had some form of family vineyards, to those inevitable and deep first impressions having encountered the local food and wine, Daniel was hooked. By his own admission, during his teenage years where his friends would go out to discotheques, Daniel would instead be found at home cooking with his friends and trying wines listed in the compilations of Hugh Johnson and Robert Parker. Daniel, together with likeminded friends such as fellow future Mosel stars AJ Adam and Julian Haart, would run through the gamut of wines, first from Germany to then Bordeaux and of course Burgundy, and whilst he would particularly resonate with Pinot Noir, he had found that the Spatburgunders that he could find from German regions like Ahr, Pfalz and Baden, had often fallen short of his expectations having lacked natural acidity  - certainly there weren't much to be found in the Mosel where he was at, the historic river valley synonymous with Rieslings. "That used to be far from a great wine here; as long as it was red and yielded many liters. The consumer was not yet willing to pay for quality," explained Twardowski. 

Nevertheless Twardowski's pursuit of great wines would persist into his college years where he would often arbitrage under the radar offers to terrific success. "For example, I bought an incomplete case of 1923 Château d’Issan at Christie’s for 500 euros and sold the individual bottles on eBay for 200 to 300 euros each; insane! That was real business. At one point, the bank called. They advised me to hire a tax advisor, because my turnover was getting very high." Twardowski would scour the hidden cellars of the world for rare and vintage wines, and when he had sniffed out opportunity, he'd act swiftly and decisively, with these cases that had often not seen the light of day for half a century, now destined for the bright Internet pages of auction events. "That’s how I managed to snap up a batch of 3,000 bottles last year, containing a lot of old top Riesling, including fifty-year-old Auslese from Egon Müller and J.J. Prüm. But you only experience something like that once every five or ten years, mind you!" touts Twardowski. This became a real business for Twardowski who would fully become a bonafide wine merchant, which in turn offered him the financial independence to regularly travel to Burgundy where he became closely ingratiated with the likes of legendary winemakers such as Laurent Ponsot, Eric Rousseau and Pascal Marchand, along with German growers back home like Klaus Peter Keller.

It was in fact Marchand who in the early 2000's had mused during an afternoon lunch to Daniel as to the possibility of the German wine merchant from Bremen making his own Pinot Noir in the Mosel. Daniel having grown up by the haloed winding river banks understood full well the challenge. "Spatburgunder is a German selection, it’s very strawberry, very much quantity focused, not so much quality - it made about ten times as much quantity to ‘Pinot Noir’, what they grow in Burgundy," explains Daniel in reference to the widespread use of German Pinot Noir clones that did not match up to what Burgundy was able to produce. Yet at the same time, climate change which has brought more warmth to the Riesling dominated Mosel, along with only two decades old regulatory overhauls that had struck down a half a century ban on the planting of red varieties in the Mosel, meant that if there was any time to make Pinot Noir in the Mosel, now was probably the best time to strike before it got crowded. After all, even by the early 2000's, the concept of farming Pinot Noir was still largely poorly embraced given the labor intensity required, even though the reality was that the Mosel's cool nights and slate soils had in fact made for the ideal growing conditions for the heartbreak grape to gain the sort of freshness and acidity that the rest of Germany's vineyards lacked.

The Mosel was once painted half Pinot Noir, long before its Riesling dominance.

Why The Mosel Is Synonymous With Riesling And Not Pinot Noir

The Mosel river valley (once known as Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) located to the west of Germany and runs towards Luxembourg is perhaps the country's best known wine region internationally, and is inextricably tied today to the making of Rieslings - and for good reason, the Mosel's co-axial topography (of steep slopes that provide a range of altitude incline alongside the river's lengthy longitude means that the Mosel offers a huge spectrum of ripening microclimates) allows for producers to make some of the widest palettes of Riesling styles possible. Its cool climate and slate soils are ideal for the white Riesling varietal and winemakers are able to play along the configurations between when to harvest (which determines ripening and the amount of sugar in the fruit) and when to stop fermentation (which determines how much residual sugar is left in the wine) - a single Riesling grape here can therefore be uniquely made into multiple styles. For example a regular harvest Riesling, can either be fermented fully to dryness to produce a Trocken (or "Dry"), or have its fermentation stopped early to leave a touch of residual sugar behind for a Kabinett. This allows the Mosel to produce Rieslings from dry to sweet, and everything in between.

Yet, the historic wine region, whose viticultural history goes back over 2,000 years (and of course to the Romans) and is Germany's oldest wine producing area, wasn't always synonymous with Riesling. That today Riesling makes up about 60% of the region's varieties (with Müller-Thurgau, Elbling and Kerner following after), is the result of almost 200 years of sizeable support from the government for the varietal (through a slew of tax breaks, research on quality improvements and the mapping of key vineyards), which was identified as having the potential to fuel the region's star power. This made it a favourite of European nobility and gave rise to the Mosel's repute for Riesling. Yet even as Riesling dominated, into the early 1900's, there was still some room for the likes of Pinot Noir (which had been successfully farmed in the Mosel up till then), yet the regime of the 1930's saw to it that red grape varieties would be outrightly banned, both for nationalistic reasons (having not wanted to support anything French or non-German for that matter) and for economic purposes (with Mosel Riesling's commanding high prices that could support the regime).

This would last from 1933 up until 1986, when it was finally repealed thanks to the fervent efforts of Mosel growers looking to revive the region's traditions, where it is said that in the Middle Ages, as much as half of Mosel's grapes were red. Yet that's meant that even into the 2000's (and still in the 2020's), the Mosel was and is by and large still a Riesling region, with little experience with and presence of Pinot Noir winegrowing.

From Trading Wines On Ebay To Making The Mosel's Most Coveted Pinot Noir

And so as the story about town goes, in 2005 a young man in his mid-20's had purchased an incredibly small yet infinitely laborious and challenging plot - just 0.8 hectares, not even a full one - in Dhroner Hofberg, the middle of the Mosel, and was now ripping out precious old vine Rieslings from this VDP Grosse Lage (the highest tier of German vineyards, equivalent to Grand Cru) site. Everything about it sounded wacky! What was the young man going to plant there, and why would he toss away the only thing of value there just to put in intense work to start from scratch. That was of course none other than Daniel Twardowski, who had now firmly set his sights on and was convicted that he would make the best Pinot Noir from this tiny plot. "The story went around in the village that there was an idiot who was still buying plots in that labor-intensive Steillage. So they lined up at my place to offer me their vineyards cheaply," chuckles Twardowski.

Contrary to popular local belief, bigger isn't better and size variation is in fact a good thing.

"You can only produce great wine from the very best vines, but our country has no long tradition of qualitative selection of clones. Everything used to be simply called “Spätburgunder,” and if you had vines with small berries, you were out of luck, because people actually preferred big grapes. My vision was therefore to start making top-quality Pinot Noir in the Mosel from a slate soil, in a cool climate and with optimal clones, from vines with superior provenance."

Twardowski nevertheless was a man with a plan. For starters, he understood that the Spatburgunder clones used in Germany needed to be replaced by quality French vines if he was to make top notch Pinot Noir. When vine cuttings from French nurseries failed to meet his standards, he would even pull them out and start over again, this time tapping on his network in Burgundy to secure himself clones from the legendary Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (from Richebourg and Romanee St Vivant) and Domaine Ponsot, specially selecting Pinot Noir clones 777, 828 and 943 for smaller and looser berries. “Pinot Noir is like a dancing ballerina. The clones from Burgundy made less, sure, but the clusters were loose, and with the winds from the mountains there was little disease pressure," says Daniel. He would even later on add cuttings of ancestral Pinot Fin (the predecessor of Pinot Noir) and Tres Fin, that he was allowed to take from Domaine Ponsot's near mythical Clos de la Roche Grand Cru and Marchand's Le Musigny vineyards. With these, he would farm naturally, staying away from herbicides.

Vignettes from the Hofberg vineyard perched above the valley, with red varieties that remain a rarity and a sight to behold in the Mosel.

From the highly regarded domaines of Leroy, Armand Rousseau, Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Emmanuel Rouget (who took over from the late Henri Jayer) and Chateau Margaux, he was also able to procure used oak barrels to mature his Pinot Noir wines. He would then sought to learn the winemaking ropes at Armand Rousseau, and would also enlist the help of Andreas Adam (of fellow Hofberg winemaker Weingut AJ Adam) in making the wines. Given the entirety of his ambitious new foray, Daniel would decide to simply focus all of his attention and efforts into making just one wine - the Ardoise Pinot Noix.

Daniel carrying off second fill barrels from Domaine de la Romanee Conti to mature his Pinot Noix in.

With so much emphasis on just one wine, it's without a doubt that Daniel's given much consideration to its name. Firstly, Daniel had wanted a name that was international rather than local, signalling its ambitions, and thus chose to go by Pinot Noir as opposed to Spatburgunder. Next, he would playfully turn the varietal name into the moniker "Pinot Noix", with "Noix" meaning "Nut" in French, a reference to the ravens he saw in autumn time at his Hofberg vineyard who would pick from the trees around his estate and drop these walnuts from high up onto the stiff soils to crack them open. This carried a double meaning for Daniel who too saw himself much like the bird cracking the nut, with his own goal of breaking the region's Riesling mold by reintroducing Pinot Noir as the Mosel's first red varietal focused vineyard. Finally, he would add "Ardoise" which meant "Slate" in French, describing the unique terroir of his Pinot Noir's. 

Into The Cellars With The Wines Of Daniel Twardowski

In the cellars, the largely one man show keeps things simple, keeping inline with the Burgundian philosophy that most of the work to be done is in the vineyard. Using a low-fi basket press and traditional open top wooden fermentation vats from Tonnellerie Rousseau (no pumps or filters, with everything moved by gravity), Daniel does his utmost to get the best fruit in there, which is then allowed to ferment spontaneously. Depending on the growing season, he might de-stem anywhere from 50% to 85% of the fruit. Emphasising a light touch, Daniel uses manual treading to submerge the cap of the must with his feet so that extraction remains gentle. Once fermentation is completed, Daniel aims to leave the wine alone as much as possible, letting it age in 20-30% new Burgundian pints (from François Freres and Taransaud; the Ardoise Pinot Noix gets 25-50% new oak, whilst the Hofberg Reserve gets 50% new oak) for 16-17 months before bottling. For Daniel, the most important result is that the wines are not "manufactured".

Whilst his first vintages proved more extracted, he would later refine the winemaking to produce wines that were lighter, gentler, finer and less extracted, which he felt were better suited what he called "filigree". Daniel believes that the Mosel terroir is most unique for its ability to produce lighter, more elegant and playful wines, with fresh yet fine acidity. He believed that the wines from the Mosel could be as delicate and as "transparent" as they were expressive of their terroir and varietal, even if they were not Riesling's. "You don’t make blends of Riesling and Spätburgunder, because those are “filigree” grape varieties. If I want a full-bodied wine with 14% alcohol and wood, I’ll drink a Cabernet. With my Spätburgunder, I want to transport the slate, the minerality and spiciness thereof, into the wine. I had to transform what I think about the wines, the techniques; now it is all hand-made wines as the ‘old dogs' [referring to Burgundy's winemakers from the previous generation]," explains Daniel.

And so from his debut 2011 vintage of the Ardoise Pinot Noix, all the way up till 2017, Daniel would squarely focus on finding his bearings and laying the foundation to what looks to be his life's work. 2018 and 2019 would see a quick succession of two more wines finally added to the stable - the Hofberg Reserve that's made by grafting Pinot Noir to 40-70 year old Riesling trunks (which Daniel says supercharges the vines with a quality harvest ready in as little as a year), and "Pinot Noix 3rd" which aims to be a second wine to his flagship, made with the fruit from younger vines. In between, he's nevertheless dabbled in the occasional Riesling and Methode Traditionelle sparkling Pinot Noir Ultra Brut Sekt. In late 2023, Daniel was able to acquire another small parcel of Riesling in the Hofberg area, which he's since announced his plans to make the estate's first Kabinett GG.

The Pursuit Of Germany's Greatest Pinot Noir From Within The Mosel

From that initial 0.8 hectare vineyard, Daniel would in 2016 (some 10 years on from his original purchase) acquire another 3 hectares in Hofberg, which is what has allowed him to produce his subsequently expanded Hofberg Reserve and Pinot Noix 3rd - the Hofberg Reserve representing his oldest vines, followed by the flagship Pinot Noix, and finally the Pinot Noix 3rd which showcases the youngest vines. With this small but sufficient 3.8 hectare plot (home to an estimated 30,000 vines), Daniel has mapped out 19 distinct plots, which when considering it's incredibly varied topography, justifies his calling Burgundy "flat" in comparison! Given the cult reputation that Daniel's Pinot Noix has already carved out for itself, it might come as a surprise that commercial success hasn't quite followed. 

"Between me and my wife, we have six kids; still, quality has to be king, not quantity. My Weingut hasn't made any money yet, I keep investing to try out what could be even better," says Daniel. The combination of his use of old vines and Burgundian Pinot Noir clones, yields remain naturally low from Daniel's already small estate, with between just 8,000-9,000 bottles able to be produced annually. And it's for that reason Daniel can't quite quit rare wine trading just yet, even as he's stated matter of factly that he has little interest in substantially increasing his vineyards. That said, it's worth stating that according to Daniel, German winemaking legend Klaus Peter Keller has himself acknowledged that in this little Hofberg parcel resides "the best genetic quality [Pinot Noir] in Germany, no question", even as the vines are still alittle young for Daniel's liking, who jokes that it's likely his grandkids who would be most happy with them.

Ultimately for Daniel, it's all about the pursuit of making Germany's greatest Pinot Noir in the Mosel, much like the raven who ceaselessly tries to crack open the walnut. 

And so with all that said, it's time to put Daniel Twardowski's Ardoise Pinot Noix to the taste test!

Wine Review: Daniel Twardowski Ardoise Pinot Noix

This comes from the Pinot Noir vines planted by Twardowski in the Hofberg vineyard in 2006, the vines over 10 years old at this point. It's spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts, with 35% whole cluster fermentation and 2 weeks maceration in open top wooden vats, after which it is aged for 18 months in 25-50% new Burgundy and Bordeaux oak barrels. It is bottled unfiltered.

This is the 2021 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Ruby

Aroma: Opens deep and plush, with rich and supple, sensual tones of rose petals, patchouli, raspberries and blackberries. There's an earthy and savoury complexity with some vegetal stemminess, and also a slight meatiness of breakfast ham. It's floral and rustic, supported by more bouquets of irises and violets, with also a touch of farmhouse funkiness and balsamic. It's fresh and pure, and at the same time vividly aromatic. There's a subtle undertone of mountain air and pristine slate threading its aromas.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, incredibly supple and plush, voluminous, with a broad, pillowy richness of raspberry and blackberry preserves, garnished with perfumed rose petals and also an earthiness of freshly tilled soil and farmhouse rusticity. Belying the fruity and earthy tones is again that meaty savouriness of breakfast ham. The acidity is bright and completely softened, the tannins fine and fully resolved. This continues to develop with a crack of black pepper, along with lightly tart cherry, cranberry and blackcurrant preserves that accompany that meatiness, as well as some salted capers.

Finish: Those red and black fruit preserves carry through, still with that meatiness and salinity, here with a touch of dried rosemary herbaceousness. Running concurrently is an undercurrent of minerality of spring water. It's seamless, lifted and lush through the finish with a lingering meatiness, salinity and perfume of crushed violets.

My Thoughts

Daniel Twardowski's Ardoise Pinot Noix is luminous and ethereal, centered upon a bramble of juicy fruit preserves that's rich and concentrated, yet completely supple and delicate in form. Really unique and distinctive, the wine speaks to its unlikely Mosel origins, and at the same time is as epic as what you'd expect from one of the world's most legendary wine regions. It's fresh and lifted, taking you in with its vibrantly perfumed aromas right from the moment it meets the glass, yet with a near chewiness to its textures, coloured with a sense of wildness and rusticity, and evocative of the heartiness of the countryside, with a composition of tart cooked down fruits, exotic florals, a meaty salinity and pepperiness, earthy tones of soil and farmhouse, a mountainous minerality, that's then balanced with a subtle herbaceousness. The acidity is bright and gleaming, yet softened and well distributed, with tannins plush and fine, bringing forward what feels like great generosity of the fruit core.

It's vividly expressive, taking you right to the high altitude, pastoral slate encased hillsides, in what is a really complete and captivating wine. It impressively conveys that filigree quality that Twardowski aims to achieve - voluminous, supple and elegant, with gentle extraction and a purity of natural fruit that's then developed such complexity and character. It's not tight-laced, strictly structured or particularly bodied and grounded, in fact, altogether quite the opposite of what Twardowski's Burgundian mentors produce, yet at the same time it feels somehow completely Burgundian in sensibility, with what is clearly a lighter hand in its winemaking, and a deep emphasis on demonstrating that purity and expressiveness of its terroir, letting the wine speak for itself. In that sense, a head to head comparison whilst sensible in theory, would not adequately grasp the difference in stylistic philosophy. And so, whilst both share a similar approach, they nevertheless head towards vastly different directions. Where the Burgundian legends feel more terrestrial, Twardowski belongs with the new generation of Pinot makers who embrace a more dreamy ephemerality.

It's subtle and understated on its own, and at the same time pairs perfectly with richer foods, offering a contrast with its lightness and also savouriness and salinity. Would this do any better with more age? Frankly it feels like it's already ready and right where it wants to be, with its lightness seemingly integral to the domaine's identity, and as such is something you'd want to keep hold of, almost as if it's lightning in a bottle. Overall a thoroughly enchanting expression that is as unique as the shoe fits, truly a standout Pinot Noir of Mosel proportions! If you thought the Mosel can only make top tier Riesling's, Twardowski will have you convinced that the valley can produce phenomenal world class Pinot Noir to match.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot