Page 98 - Dez2017

,,Das gibt einem die Sicherheit, dass es ein toller Jahrgang ist”
anzusprechen, und gleichzeitig so subtil, dass er auch Kennern gefällt – wie ein Bild von Gerhard Richter oder ein Stück von Shakespeare.
Die anderen sitzen schweigend über ihren Gläsern, wie Ärzte über einem komplizierten Fall.
„Acidity“, „Purity“, schreibt einer der Sommeliers in seinen Block.
„Energie“, sagt der Kanadier. „Und Fokus. Und die Fähigkeit zu altern.“
„Ein großer Jahrgang?“, frage ich ihn.
Er lächelt: „Das werden wir erst in einigen Jahren wissen. Aber die wichtigsten Bestandteile sind da.“
In September 2016, Egon Müller sets a new record at the wine auction in Trier. He sells the Scharzhofberg Old Vines from 2015 for € 160 a bottle. This high price for a normal vintage wine is more signi cant than the record price for Trockenbeerenauslese the year before, believes Max von Kunow. „It‘s a sign that the whole region is back on top.“
Shortly afterwards, Annegret Reh-Gartner writes a letter to her co-workers and friends: „I now know that I have lost the ght despite optimism and a ghting spirit (...). In the same letter, she appoints three people from her team as managing directors. A few days later she dies at the age of 61. Annegret Reh-Gartner is buried on the 10th of October 2016. After her funeral, the guest can drink a Scharzhofberg wine from 2014.
All of her colleagues have come, except for Roman Niewodniczanski, who had to go to Amsterdam that day.
„You also have to ask yourself, what is the meaning of life? It can‘t be just about making money,“ says Max von Kunow, a few days after her death. He has advertised three internships for refugees, saying „wine is a central point in many cultural circles, wine connects people“.
„What remains?“ asks Egon Müller on the same day. He mentions the pioneering work Reh-Gartner did for the rehabilitation of Saar wine. „I believe that she has created a monument to herself with everything that she has achieved here.“ It‘s mid- October, and behind him lies a dif cult year. „2016 will always a be the year for me that is connected with the suffering and death of Annegret“, says Müller, and with continuous rain and downy mildew that he wasn‘t able to handle even with fungicide, it is a year which nally graciously led to a golden autumn. The grapes ripened late, and the harvest will probably not be ready until November. Then the hill will go into hibernation, and its gardeners will spread out in all directions to talk about it, its old vines, its harsh climate, a dif cult year and a wine that is supposed to contain all of this.
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