It took me (too) many years to learn there'd never be enough time to have the kind of soul-searching conversations about wine philosophy I wanted to have with my growers. Also, that such conversations couldn't be contrived, but needed to happen spontaneously. Yet I wanted to know what made a grower tick, and so I created a little questionnaire which I leave behind for the grower to answer at his/her leisure. The results go into my catalog text, augmented by bon mots which actually do arise in conversation.

Christian Adam's notes arrived yesterday, too late for the catalog. Yet what he writes is so compelling I can't wait another year to share it with you.

This is an intense young man, and meeting him for the first time it was subdued by his old-world politeness. But answering my written questions in solitude seems to have unleashed the beast. Adam is both his own man - very much so - yet also emblematic of the new wave in German wine-think. I don't agree with everything he espouses, but his bedrock passion is stirring. I think of that instant of ignition when I tasted my first Adam wine, and it all starts to make sense.

This is an intense young man, and meeting him for the first time it was subdued by his old-world politeness. But answering my written questions in solitude seems to have unleashed the beast. Adam is both his own man - very much so - yet also emblematic of the new wave in German wine-think. I don't agree with everything he espouses, but his bedrock passion is stirring. I think of that instant of ignition when I tasted my first Adam wine, and it all starts to make sense.

"The hardest work of vinifying a great wine takes about nine months, from February till the beginning of November - rather like a pregnancy - during which time we let what happens happen, without disturbing or perturbing nature, but rather we watch over and work in harmony with nature's larger power.

"An aside: I'm sitting here writing on our terrace under a blue sky. Nearby sits a fallow vineyard, to which a vintner is carrying chemical fertilizer. . .

"I renounce any and all such treatments. I sustain my vineyards by intensive soil-work (I was ploughing this morning; it smells so wonderfully of fresh earth and slate) to bring the essential nutrients up from the primary rock, the natural compost of a vineyard. This completion of the bond between the elemental soil and the work of the vintner is another piece in the puzzle of terroir.

"I renounce any and all such treatments. I sustain my vineyards by intensive soil-work (I was ploughing this morning; it smells so wonderfully of fresh earth and slate) to bring the essential nutrients up from the primary rock, the natural compost of a vineyard. This completion of the bond between the elemental soil and the work of the vintner is another piece in the puzzle of terroir.

I then ask the grower, which is his peak-site. And why; is his choice due to specific terroir/microclimactic factors, or other circumstances such as vine-age or vine-material?

"We love our Dhronhofberger, in its lovely quiet side-valley, which leaves stress behind and is out of the stream of all which is trendy in German wine-growing, today Cabernet, tomorrow Sauvignon Blanc.

What makes the vineyard great is of course its flavors; even young it often shows a striking exotic fruit, subtle spice, wild slate aromas and a finesse of acidity."

I agree. The only reason this site isn't front-and-center among Mosel Grand Crus is the lack of a flagship-estate - until now. Hofberger is one of those Mosel sites with complex slate, in this case with a vein of clay and with a measure of the sandy slate-variant of the Nahe. It is both archetypal Mosel yet also extra-Mosel; it sometimes makes me think of Dönnhoff's Brücke.

Next I ask about terroir. Of course! Not for nothing have I been anointed terroir-lama. My question is specific: do you believe that components in your soil create flavors in your wines?

"I think in Germany we see terroir as a unity of grape, climate, soil, and the mentality of the person who works the vineyard. But the essence of that mentality is a knowledge that the geology of his terrain indeed creates the flavors in the grapes which grow there. Thus if you consider Riesling from blue-gray slate from the Goldtröpfchen, in its youth it's herbacious, with delicate lime fragrance and mineral-salty on the palate. Contrast the Dhronhofberger Tholey, with its brittle blue clay-slate mixed with qualtz and Klimmer, whose riesling tastes almost as if it emerged from a tropical garden; maracuja, papaya, pineapple and with a slight breeze of honey and caramel. Here on the Mosel we have lovely variations of slate and exposure."

And vinification, I ask? Anything which separates you from the prevailing norm?

"Actually we do nearly nothing differently than did our forefathers in the 20s: small yields of late-harvested Riesling grapes are gently handled and pressed (we still press some in an old wooden press); after an open must-oxidation the wines fall bright at cool temperatures in stainless steel, and later ferment in old wooden Fuders. Finito! That's all, nothing else, just wait for the wild yeasts to begin their work. No must or mash sulfuring, no enzymes, no gelatin, no added vitamins, no bentonite - pure nature!

To the extent we employ technology it is only in the service of cleanliness."

I'm curious to know what kinds of wines a grower drinks at home in private, i.e. what he drinks for pleasure. Adam says, "A wide range of Grüner Veltliners, which I prefer to Grand Crus in white Burgundy; Rieslings from great sites in our region whether dry or sweet; vintage Champagnes; the occasional rose-scented Muscat from Südsteiermark or a smoky-flinty Loire Sauvignon from someone like Dageneau." Nice to know if I were ever quarantined at Adam's there'd be plenty to drink.

He has a telling comment to make about deacidification: "A great Riesling with a rather high level of acidity is no catastrophe on the palate; it just needs time. But if we ever needed to deacidify, we'd have done it before the grapes ferment, via reduced yields, intensive soil and leaf work, air-flow management, sun-exposure management, and finally a selective harvest where we only pick ripe fruit. I can get aromas from the skins in the press-house, and also reduce acids by must-oxidation, which also eliminates undesirable tannins and phenols."

Or, one might add, you can take it easy and just dump in some chemicals.

Finally, as I run through the basics of his vineyard and cellar work, I need you to understand the extent to which this is emblematic of the new thinking in quality-minded German vintners, a thinking which has undergone a 180-degree turn in the last twenty years. These basics are:

• Exclusively organic fertilizing
• Green-harvest to reduce yields
• Hand-harvesting only
• Must-clarification by gravity (no centrifuges or filters)
• Ambient wild-yeast fermentations
• Long lees-contact (4 months, followed by another 6 weeks on the fine-lees)
• No dosage (I happen to disagree with this but applaud the purism which prompts it)

Thus our young hero, and thus my great good fortune to have encountered him. I look forward to every glass we will raise together.

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