Like everyone else, I suppose, all I remembered about the 2010 German vintage were reports of doom and gloom that had already started to surface by September 2010, before the main harvest had even begun. People had all but written it off. So I came out to Germany in April 2011 with much scepticism after hearing reports from producers of "great things"
Difficult conditions throughout the 2010 summer were fortunately complimented by two factors: A bad flowering that meant potential yields were low, a good thing considering the poor summer that lay waiting, as fewer grapes mean easier ripening. The second factor was sunny, cool weather at the end of September through October, when the main harvest took place.
Early summer conditions and cool temperatures did mean that vintage was late, many growers were still picking into November. As Klaus Peter Keller put it "you had to not lose your nerve and wait until the grapes were ripe"
It is clear there are two sides to this vintage, commercial production and mediocre producers have meant lean, acidic wine. However totally on the contrary, top producers from top sites have made some stunning grosse gewachs and late harvest wines.
The crop is small but the wines are fabulously intense and concentrated, so much so that the extract covers the high acidities amply. It is also a vintage where the different soils and climates sing gloriously through each wine. This is a classic and should be a great one to lay down. As an example Zilliken has recorded the lowest crop for 30 years, but the highest ever average must weights.
So never has there been such a wide qualitative gap between the top and bottom wines in one vintage, but Riesling fans will not want to miss out on top growers' wines, at their best they could be something close to legendary
Difficult conditions throughout the 2010 summer were fortunately complimented by two factors: A bad flowering that meant potential yields were low, a good thing considering the poor summer that lay waiting, as fewer grapes mean easier ripening. The second factor was sunny, cool weather at the end of September through October, when the main harvest took place.
Early summer conditions and cool temperatures did mean that vintage was late, many growers were still picking into November. As Klaus Peter Keller put it "you had to not lose your nerve and wait until the grapes were ripe"
It is clear there are two sides to this vintage, commercial production and mediocre producers have meant lean, acidic wine. However totally on the contrary, top producers from top sites have made some stunning grosse gewachs and late harvest wines.
The crop is small but the wines are fabulously intense and concentrated, so much so that the extract covers the high acidities amply. It is also a vintage where the different soils and climates sing gloriously through each wine. This is a classic and should be a great one to lay down. As an example Zilliken has recorded the lowest crop for 30 years, but the highest ever average must weights.
So never has there been such a wide qualitative gap between the top and bottom wines in one vintage, but Riesling fans will not want to miss out on top growers' wines, at their best they could be something close to legendary
(pictured is the mightly Maximin Grunhaus Abtsberg of Carl von Schubert)
