The wines of Andrzej Greszta

Posted on 12 February 2012

A brief patriotic review today. I tasted four Mosel wines from Andrzej Greszta. Pole Greszta has been making wine in Germany since the 2006 vintage. He works in the lower Moselle valley, in the neighbourhood of outstanding estates such as Heymann-Löwenstein, Clemens Busch, Knebel and Vollenweider. His vineyards lie in the village of Kröv and lie on the region’s classic steep slate slopes. I really like Greszta’s first efforts, particularly the sweeter styles.

Now I had a look at a mixed bag of styles and vintages. All the wines were good, or more. The 2007 Kröver Steffensberg Riesling Spätlese trocken showed good minerality with a soft, gentle fruitiness, a far cry from the aggressive herbal character of many dry Moselle Rieslings; perhaps it just needs a bit more expression. The Kröver Letterlay Spätlese halbtrocken 2010 offers a nice saline touch to its apple & lemon fruit, and overall the balance is more convincing than the above’s: it’s not a sweetish wine at all, but the residual sugar (as often) helps emphasising the fruit. Kudos too for the Steffensberg Spätlese feinherb 2008: lemon again with pineapple too, the interplay of round off-dry fruitiness and salty minerality is quite nice. Finally the Letterlay Auslese 2007, perhaps the most successful wine here; with good sap and intensity of fruit, balanced sugar, and rather soft acidity, it drinks very well.

Two minor criticisms I’d have is too much similarity across the wines – they didn’t really taste of different vintages such as 2007 and 2010, and the richness level between a halbtrocken and Auslese is not really a big step up. Secondly, the wines seemed a little muted and they certainly lack the outrageous intensity and multifaceted breadth of Clemens Busch or Heymann-Löwenstein. On the other hand they don’t pretend to have it, and are very fairly priced at 6€ for Kabinetts and 14€ for the Auslese.

More importantly than his wines, Andrzej Greszta has an extraordinary story as a vintner. He first came to the Moselle as a vineyard worker (anybody who’s been to the region will know that 90% of the workforce is Polish), and worked as an apprentice notably with Carl Loewen and Andreas Vollenweider. In 2006, he produced his first 1400 liters of wine from a rented site in Kröv. Starting a winery from scratch in expensive and conservative Germany is surely an achievement, as even children of renowned winemaking families often encounter insurmountable difficulties when trying to go independent (see the example of Sandra Kühn). Then in 2009 Greszta’s house in Kröv burnt to the ground as he lost his entire stock of wine and documentation. With the solidarity of other vintners, he resurrected and continues to make wine from Kröv’s premiers crus. I wish him luck – he’s proven worthy of it.

Disclosure

Source of wines: tasting samples from Greszta’s Polish importer.