Germany 2012 – “grace and flavour”

Germany's great wine making regions make for a glorious buying trip when the sun is shining. When we arrived in the middle of June the sun unfortunately wasn't. Indeed, parts of the Rheingau had recently seen serious flooding. But nevertheless, the growers we visited, the elite by anybody's books, were cheeringly upbeat. As Carl von Schubert put, 'Riesling is the most innovative weed there is, capable of coping with even the most inauspicious of seasons'. The universal sentiment was that 'The vines maybe two weeks behind but they'll catch up. Nothing to worry about'. Plus ça change from the slightly more pessimistic 2013 outlook in other parts of Europe. By the time we left, temperatures well into the 30s seemed to confirm their optimism.

Dr. Carl von Schubert 

But of course, we were there to look at the 2012s; an unusual growing season that has produced a range of startling wines with characters and qualities that are almost incomparable in recent vintages.

The most universal and important theme for understanding the style of the wines in 2012 is the lack of botrytis. Across Germany rain at flowering led to coulure, or poor fruit set, which in turn produced loose bunches of small-berried, thick skinned fruit. As Klaus Peter Keller remarked, 'you can’t put in an order for berries like this, even if you’d always like to have them'. These loose bunches would become crucial to the success of the vintage, allowing botrytis preventing air to flow freely over the grapes as harvest approached. Widespread frost in October forced many to harvest then and there, with others such as Keller preferring to leave the grapes on the vines for a further week. Those that weren’t so badly affected by hail or frost, and who held their nerve, found themselves harvesting into November under sunshine and blue skies; ‘A golden autumn’ as Oliver Haag put it. This extremely long hang time allowed all the elements of the great Riesling grape to achieve full maturity in harmony, which, coupled with almost complete lack of botrytis, has given rise to grapes of startling purity, good must weights, fresh but most importantly ripe acidities and truly beautiful fruit characteristics. The only negatives are the small quantities and almost complete lack of noble sweet wines.

Keller Riesling Grapes 

In the Rheingau, where, as of 2012 the top dry wines will carry the Groses Gewachs designation rather than the Erstes Gewachs of old, we visited Spretizer in Oestrich, Weil in Kiedrich and further west, just around the corner from the great Rudesheimer Berg, August Kesseler. At Spreitzer the harvest came later than Andreas can remember in his 20 years of making wine at the estate, yet still they report acidities as high as ever before. Crucially, the long hang time meant their high levels of acidity are tartaric rather than malic, giving a ripe and juicy character to the wines rather than anything aggressive. Add to that the extended maturation of the flavours in each grape and the combination is one of flavoursome power, freshness and extract; a recipe for success in anyone’s book. The inimitable August Kesseler, in Assmanshauser described the vintage as a little 2001, a little 2004, and a little something else altogether. High ripe acidities and crystal clear flavours abound in August’s dry 2012s, while his reds from the richer 2011 vintage as good as we’ve seen from this estate – they will demand attention and further cement his reputation as one of Germany’s great Spatburgunder producers.

Across in the Mosel the word on everyone’s lips is ‘classical’. Yield are low, acidities are technically fresh yet come across as ripe, fruit flavours are clear and bright. It is telling that more than one producer we saw referred us back to vintages of old. The wines from Prüm, the Haag brothers, Willi Schaeffer and Zilliken (Saar) show high levels of finesse and elegance with strong slate characteristics and gloriously fresh Riesling fruit. The gamble for some was waiting to make the most of the Indian summer, which meant vineyard health had to be spot on. Those who had put the work in were rewarded with tremendous harvest conditions, giving rise to some of the most fleet of foot and alluring Rieslings we can remember at Spatlese level, the wines are masterclasses in effortless delivery of flavour and terroir definition, while at Auslese level the wines are intense yet immensely refreshing; the 2012 vintage truly shows off the Mosel at its dancing best.

JJ Prum Estate

In the Nahe both Helmut Dönnhoff and Frank Schönleber reported incredibly healthy grapes at harvest, indeed neither reported any botrytis whatsoever until as late as October. The rain that did fall in October was accompanied by cool temperatures allowing for a ripening of flavours and aromas without a great increase in sugars. As a result none of the Emrich-Schönleber  elegant Grosses Gewachs bottlings exceed 12.5% abv this year – a factor which merely enhances their pure drinkability without imparting any loss of flavour.  Dönnhoff's range, tasted at the end of a long day, should have been exhausting such is its size, but instead it simply blew us away. From the basic trockens up through some gloriously pure Grosses Gewachs and into the fruchtig range, Helmut, with the aid of his son Cornelius, continues to craft singularly pure Rieslings stamped with incredibly precise terroir characteristics. Together, these two growers continue to prove that the Nahe can produce wines on a par with any in all of Germany.

Our final stop was with Klaus-Peter Keller in Rheinhessen, a producer with a cult following who is doing more for the region than perhaps anyone else. Klaus-Peter was evidently and justly proud of his 2012s, describing the vintage as 'an affair of the heart; one of our favourite vintages' – and frankly we’re not about to argue. Keller’s wines are always marked by a sublime minerality. In 2012, the long hang time, 'like slow cooking', cool summer and large diurnal temperature swings at harvest time have produced multi-layered, profoundly clear wines, dry and sweet, of the highest pedigree. They will last a long time, yet like the very greatest of wines, are almost impossible to resist now.

**All the above wines will be offered in September following our annual German En Primeur tasting.

A last minute addition to Germany 2011

I am much looking forward to our German Riesling 2011 tasting & offer next week.  We have delayed the tasting this year until September so that we can show for the first time the Grosse Gewachs and the current JJ Prum vintage (June is always too early for them.)  Another wine got added to the team sheet this week, an uber fine Herrenberg Auslese Fuder 15 2011 from Carl von Schubert of the old monastic Maximin Grunhaus estate in the Ruwer.  It had not been bottled when I visited the estate back in May so I was unable to taste it.  A very different wine to Abtsberg, the redder slate soils make for a less powerful, mineral but finer and fresher Riesling than the grey blue slate of Abtsberg.  They will go shoulder to shoulder next week and should provide a startling contrast to each other.

As usual we will be offering wines from the good and the great of Germany and are particularly pleased to be showing a larger selection of dry Riesling than ever before.

I am excited at the prospect of reacquainting myself with 2011.  My fond memories in May were wines of purity, clarity, less botrytised richness than in most recent vintages but with a great balance between intensity of flavour and feather-weight lightness - this is what makes German Riesling on slate so unique and thrilling.
 

Germany 2010 - a potential legend

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

(pictured is the mightly Maximin Grunhaus Abtsberg of Carl von Schubert)

Germany 2009: Day 2

The day's tasting began at Willi Schaefer where we were met by the charming Christophe Schaefer.

In tasting our way through a beautiful set of wines from the Himmelreich and Domprobst vineyards in the village of Graach we discovered great "ripeness and structure but also fantastic ripe acidity". We came away stuck by their finesse, elegance and purity. An estate doing great things.

On route to Maximin Grunhaus we stopped at Reinhold Haart to taste his wonderful Piesport Goldtropfchens. A vineyard reknowned for producing some of the richest and most opulent wines in the Mosel, the 2009s are exotic but not without refinement, their richness and almost Rheingau-esk power coming from the soft slate soils and sunbaked aspect of the site.

Lunch beckoned but not before we climbed out of the Mosel valley and over to the Ruwer for all 20 wines in Carl von Schubert's stable. Daunted we began, but it wasn't long before we were totally immersed in a thoroughly impressive set of wines. The "dry" Abtsberg Superior (allowed to ferment to its natural conclusion) was powerful, balanced and intense. The top quality sweeter wines that followed were punctuated by the particular highs of the Abtsberg Kabinett, a Herrenerg Auslese of profound minerality and a final pair of incredible, showstopping Eisweins.

The post lunch session was filled by Karthauserhof, a short drive across the village. Christophe Tyrell was on hand, describing the wines as "a little bit of 2007, a little bit of 2005 and a little bit of 2003, maybe 40%, 40% and 20%". We took this to mean as a seriously balanced vintage. Which is exactly what we tasted.

Last but by no means least was our trip to Zilliken, in Saarburg. The great Rausch vineyard showing Wonderful ripeness and good true steely character; a superb trio of Kabinet, Spatlese and Ausleses.

Tomorrow the Nahe...

Ruwer's 09 Rieslings looking good so far

I was talking to Carl Von Schubert, owner of the Ruwer's Maximin Grunhauser estate, on Friday - fingers crossed but the growing season seems to be progressing nicely in Germany's Ruwer wine region, he commented : "The Riesling grapes in the vineyard are looking great this year. We expect a moderate yield (ca. 45 hl / ha) and there is much optimism for an outstanding quality! Almost every day I go jogging in the vineyards and my little dog and I think that the grapes already taste very aromatic. Luckily there are enough acorns and beech-nuts in the neighbouring forests so I hope that the wild boars won’t concentrate too much on the grapes!