Stylistic device reduction

Opinions differ when it comes to reduction notes. Depending on their type and character, they can be rejected, accepted or even evoke enthusiasm in wine drinkers. They often seem deliberate, not always skilful. In particular, we take a critical view of the trend towards reductive, aromatically one-dimensional Chardonnays with an artificial flinty flavour. A reductive note, if present, should favourably complement the aroma of a wine, but not replace it.

The 2018 Pinot Noir “Muschelkalk” from the J. Neus winery in Ingelheim is a successful example of how a striking reduction can give a wine new facets. Despite 12.5 % alcohol, it is rather light-bodied, glides elegantly over the tongue, impresses with cool flavours of cassis, has very restrained tannins and can score with a good length. However, its pronounced reductive note, which does not significantly diminish with years of ageing in the bottle, does not meet with universal approval.

Even its producers took stock of themselves and decided to make changes. While the 2018 still contained only the Neus clone, which was responsible for the (overly?) pronounced cassis flavour, for some vintages now a blend has been made with the yield from a young vineyard planted with a sélection massale. The makers also returned to the natural cork because they assumed a connection between the screw cap and the reduction note.

We tasted two bottlings of the 2018 Pinot Noir “Muschelkalk”, which can be distinguished by the official test number on the bottle label. The earlier one bears the serial number 4, the later one 10, and the differences were easy to identify in the triangle test. Although, as expected, the two bottlings are essentially the same, but they differ in detail. The later bottling clearly benefited from the longer maturation in the cask. It has a somewhat denser fruit flavour, with some cherry alongside the dominant cassis notes. And: the reduction is less pronounced. This confirms our suspicion that the wine would have benefited from longer maturation in the barrel. The screw cap is undoubtedly not partly responsible for the reduction notes.

With the successor vintages 2020 and 2021, the “Muschelkalk” has grown up. Reduction notes are barely perceptible, the wine is now much more complex and balanced, and the tannin quality is higher. In this respect, the winery has made the right decisions with regard to processing in the cellar. However, we consider the switch back to the anachronistic natural cork to be superfluous and misguided.