Riesling’s Reign
Germany’s 2019 vintage is clearly rather
special and has even been described as a potential “vintage of the century” by one
commentator. However, had this label been bandied about at harvest time you’ve
have been hard pressed to find a grower to confirm that view – over repeated
zoom calls during the summer I was met with surprise and delight at how the
vintage has turned out. From best-ever estate wines to aristocratic Grosses
Gewächs, and many a luscious-yet-lively sweetie, there are some truly thrilling
wines in this years’ 2019 offer. Stylistically it is a hard year to pigeonhole
as overall the wines present a wonderfully complex and somewhat rare blend of
intense minerality married to ripeness. As Frank Schönleber noted, the wines
have “the flavours of a cool vintage allied to the structure of a warm one” - a
decidedly delicious combination and one that is guaranteed to win many friends
in the years to come.
Flowering occurred later than in 2018
and was preceded by a period of unsettled weather which contributed to the
relatively uneven fruit set that was to become a feature of the vintage. After
the generosity of 2018, some suggested the vines simply recognised their
limitations; almost all growers reported less bunches per shoot, smaller
average bunch size and very small berries with thick, hardy skins – not great
for yields, but great for both fruit health and wine quality.
After a hard frost for parts of the
Saar and Ruwer – the Von Schuberts lost almost half a crop on the 5th
May - the bulk of the summer was characterised by hot and at times scorching weather.
Most regions, bar the middle Mosel, also saw a period of drought that lasted
from May until the end of August. Up until this point it was looking like a
re-run of 2018, a vintage that saw little let up from the summer warmth right
the way through to harvest. Indeed, the heat spikes were even more pronounced
in 2019, with three short periods over 40 degrees Celsius. But crucially, in
2019, they came earlier in the season, when the effects on the final grapes are
felt less keenly. Even more significantly, the heat of the summer came to an
abrupt halt with the arrival of sporadic mid- September rains and cool
temperatures– surely a defining factor in the complex mineral and non-fruit
elements that so many wines display.
Most growers did experience
significant sunburn (to their grapes) – “even to the stems in places” Thomas
Haag told us. Scorching days in July caused many bunches to simply shrivel and
dry on the vine. From the off, sorting was going to be key, yet as Dorothee
Zilliken cheerfully noted “if I had to choose one problem each year, it would
probably be sunburn – all you have to do is sort and the problem, from a
quality perspective, is solved”.
Small berries, loose clusters, much
lost to sunburn, a touch of frost, and certain growers reporting hydric stress
all adds up to a diminutive vintage. But also, given the small, loosely set thick-skinned
grapes, one best suited to handing the rains that fell in September and
October. Indeed “September was not a problem at all” Frank Schonleber reported,
“and up until early October everything was perfectly healthy, we had regular rain
but it always dried off easily. After that, when the first signs of botrytis
appeared - then it was like a train, pretty hard to stop”.
Harvest for most started in the third
week of September, generally one week later than in 2018, but earlier than growers
had predicted at the start of the season. As noted above, the spectre of harvest
rain was ever present, and this constant threat made for a complicated picking
schedule. “It was a fairly dynamic harvest” Thomas Haag reported drolly. Most growers agreed that these final weeks,
layered on top of the ripeness of the vintage, are what has produced this
curious but highly interesting combination of complex stony elements with a
sense of innate juiciness. As the
harvest progressed many simply decided that a smaller range of top quality
Auslese was a more appealing prospect than holding out hope for a break in the
weather and as such quite a few ranges end with glorious Auslese produced from
golden shrivelled grapes, untouched by botrytis. Others were able, through
determination and sheer picking numbers to craft exceptional Long Goldkaps and
even Beerenauslese, pure botrytis layered on top of extremely ripe grapes.
In the dry world, growers have
produced many a truly wonderful wine brimming with complex mineral flavours and
ripe acid structures. They have a character that purists will love, and a charm
sure to win new friends. From the Mosel and its tributaries, we tasted some of
the best dry wines we can remember – with a level of balance and ripeness that
would have been rare to encounter just a decade ago. Part of that is climate,
another part is surely growers’ desire to adapt and focus as fully on their
great dry wines as they do their fruity and noble sweet styles. It made for
some wonderful tastings this year, with highlights at all qualitative points. The Nahe dry wines, in particular those of
Emrich-Schonleber are up there with some of the best dry wines we’ve ever
tasted – ridiculously precise wines that have both detail and a sense of soul. From
across various regions, three or four estate wines are up there with the best
I’ve ever tasted, wines of great drinkability, complexity and interest – while
the best Kabinetts and Spätlese of the Mosel are thrilling wines combining
ripeness with a fascinating lightness of touch.
In terms of comparisons, many growers
likened the vintage to 2015, with perfect flavour ripeness and balance, though
with slightly less extract, less punch, and more classicism. Some
suggested 2001, one even went as far back as to suggest 1939! It is in short, a vintage of wonderfully
balanced, complex wines that show off all of this great grapes finest attributes.
Even touched by rain, Riesling’s Reign continues.
On Thursday 10th September in lieu of our annual tasting, we were delighted to have hosted a Zoom Webinar with six of Germany’s finest winemakers from across the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region. We welcomed Oliver Haag, Thomas Haag, Katharina Prüm, Christoph Schaefer, Maximin von Schubert and Dorothee Zilliken to our virtual round table for a discussion on all things 2019.
Click here to visit the Webinar blog post where you can view the session in full.