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.

Mosel Harvest 2009 "Filigree wines"

Mother Nature was on our side in 2009 and blessed us with a wonderful vintage.

After a very cold winter with temperatures as low as -18°C/-0.4°F, the warm and sunny weather of early spring was welcome. It encouraged vegetation and bode well for early blossoming. Although blossoming was actually delayed by cool, damp weather in late May/early June, and it proceeded somewhat slower and more unevenly than originally anticipated, the clusters that developed thereafter were fantastic: small, loose and intensely aromatic.

Summer remained very rainy until August, when friendlier skies reappeared.
In September, sunny and dry weather with cool nights and moderately warm days enabled the grapes to continue developing on the vine calmly and without complications.

Weather permitting, our grapes typically enjoy a very long ripening period – and so it was in 2009. We began harvesting on 13 October. The weather remained stable so that we could take our time to carefully select desirable bunches and bring in the crop in several stages.

Absolutely healthy grapes are essential for producing dry wines with outstanding potential. A selective harvest of ripe, healthy grapes/bunches attacked by noble rot yielded wonderfully fruity wines. In all, our vintage 2009 portfolio will include: juicy, racy “Gutsrieslinge” (our basic estate Rieslings); exceptionally compact Kabinett wines with a fine, fruity acidity; mineral-rich Spätlese and Auslese; and lusciously sweet Beeren- and Trockenbeerenauslese. All will offer great drinking pleasure and have great aging potential.

Once again, we have been able to put together a collection of filigree wines that unite the finest fruity aromas with the slaty mineral notes typical of Brauneberg.

We hope you will truly enjoy tasting the new wines of vintage 2009.

The Haag Family

The Mosel 2009: "Wonderfully Healthy and Golden Yellow in Colour"

We have been busy harvesting for two weeks now. Although we had a few rain showers last week, we are now experiencing a really golden October. It is quite frosty in the mornings but then wonderfully warm and sunny in the afternoons.

Thanks to a very selective harvest, we gain a fantastic quality every day, ranging from Qba through the finest Grand Crus to the Gold Capsule selection.

We have a little less quantity this year however qualitatively this harvest will turn out to be an excellent one.The grapes are wonderful healthy and golden yellow in colour.

We think that it will take us another week to finish a successful harvest.

The Mosel - Fritz Haag's harvest is about to begin.

The grape harvest is now imminent.

The weather in September was very nice and a lot of sunlight made the grapes ripen perfectly.

Small berries, golden yellow coloured, promise to give an excellent vintage. Due to the rainfall during the last days, we have decided to start harvesting this weekend and are pretty excited how the wine will turn out.