GERMANY

So what is it about German Riesling?

Many people turn their noses up and say it’s sweet. But often the same people might, at the right time, enjoy a glass of Sauternes or an off-dry wine from Alsace or the Loire. Sweetness may not be the issue. The Germans have responded to the general trend towards dry wines by producing “trocken” styles and consume enormous quantities domestically. Many estates are producing anything between 60-80% of their wines in the dry style now.

To many, the glory of German wine remains within the classic Prädikat system - wines with natural ripeness increasing in sweetness from QbA (quality wine from a specific location) through Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese to the dessert wines; Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein.

 

“it’s like electricity!”…

Fans of German Riesling talk in evangelical terms and certainly many have had personal epiphanies - a wine that just clicks, when the heavens open and it suddenly makes sense!

Could it be the exquisite balance between sweet and sour?  A sceptical friend of ours tasted one of our dry Germans and said immediately “it’s like electricity!”…Even the sweetest wines have incredible racy freshness that stop them from becoming cloying or heavy.

Could it be their versatility with food? They’re great with fish, chicken, veal and the perfect partner for pork; particularly good with spicy foods - try a Spätlese with Thai or Indian, for instance.

Another attraction may be, as with Burgundy, the real sense of terroir - that this particular wine comes from a tiny little plot on a steep hillside with a long history and tastes different to one from 200m away.

Also they are brilliant value. The finest white Burgundy can cost between 35-50, whereas an equivalent German will be 15-20.

 

Following our recent trips we now have wines from all the key regions and many from the already legendary 2003 vintage; the delicate but steely Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, the rich and earthy Nahe, the perfumed Rheingau, the more tropical Pfalz and Franken with its minerals and the mad bottle shape. We have a wide spread of growers - many, like Diel or Crusius, with long-established reputations, some, like Herrenberg and Prinz, just starting up, but all united by the pursuit of quality.

 

So, put any memories of Liebfraumilch sugar water to one side and try these fascinating wines with food or on their own!

 

Naturally Sweet (edelsüß) or Dry (trocken)?

The Prädikat system as we know it (or are confused by it) was finalised in 1971. It was designed to give the most accurate indication of what you would find in the bottle. The quality levels (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese etc.) simply describe the ripeness (Oechsle) level of the grapes before fermenting.

 

In the 60s and 70s there was huge demand for sweeter wines. These were made by stopping fermentation before it was complete by adding Süssreserve (unfermented grape juice from the same batch of grapes). There was also the additional benefit of being able to produce a palatable wine even in an unripe vintage. Nowadays, with the growers we are working with, this style is made by quickly chilling the tank to kill the yeast. The idea is to create a wine with a perfect harmony between sweetness and acidity. This is also why in this style the alcohol levels are so low, often in the range of 7-9% alcohol by volume.

 

An interesting point that emerged during our visits was the sense that 100 years ago, when classic German wines were the most expensive in the world, the yields could be as low as 15-20hl/ha and many wines were allowed to ferment out dry. Perhaps these cutting-edge garagistes are actually creating a more traditional German wine than we think.

 

What is Erstes Gewächs? What is Grosses Gewächs?

Although  “Erstes Gewächs”  means First Growth (Premier cru) and “Grosses Gewächs” means Great Growth (Grand cru), in the German context they have the same meaning. “Grosses Gewächs” is used in the Nahe and the Pfalz, “Erstes Gewächs” in the Rheingau. These regions decided to create a new (and hopefully simpler) quality level, the ultimate expression of a named classic vineyard in the trocken (dry) style. It has to be Riesling, except in the Pfalz where it can also be Weisserburgunder (Pinot Blanc). It has to be minimum Spätlese in quality and enter into panel tasting where only a few will be allowed to call themselves “Erstes” or, depending on the region, “Grosses Gewächs”. In the Rheingau, in the 2001 vintage for instance, only eleven wines were awarded the title.

We feel it has been a very useful development. The labels are simple, just carrying the name of the vineyard and the grower’s name. The wines are undoubtedly superb and show what can be done with Riesling in the dry style, competing with the finest white wines in the world, equalling them in weight, concentration and vineyard definition. These are legendary wines from legendary vineyards

 

What is yield and why is it important?

Yield may be measured by how much grape juice is produced from a given area. In Europe this is generally expressed in hectolitres per hectare and may provide a useful indicator of how concentrated or dilute a wine might be. So with 100hl/ha you would expect a watery, dilute wine, while with 25hl/ha you would expect it to be dense and concentrated. One way of achieving low yields artificially is by performing a “green harvest” in summer when a proportion of the still-forming grape bunches are removed. 

But there are limits, even at the desirable, lower yield end. Sometimes a wine can appear too thick and soupy - you really need a glass of water on the side to help it down!

 

A note about the 2003s

Everyone was talking about the 2003s. Some writers and some growers (including Fred Prinz who had access to the extensive data and collection of the state domain Kloster Eberbach) drew strong parallels with the 1959s. Thanks to the incredible unbroken summer across Europe, the wines reached a level of ripeness not seen for half a century!

 

How do they taste? Opulent. Are they better than the 2001s or 2002s? Difficult to say. Best to say “excellent, but different”. There is less race and precision, but there is weight and richness. Vollenweider said it was a great year for sweet wines, we'd have to agree. For growers who specialise in trocken wines, it was not a straightforward vintage. Manfred Loch said his wines simply stopped fermenting in January. For a grower whose main market is for his trockens, it was a potential disaster! He tried cultured yeast on one tank. Nothing happened. In something approaching desperation, he put a small heater in the cellar and finally in April the fermentation started again! This time it finished.

There was a lot of talk in the Press about low acidity levels and the need to acidify. Most of our growers decided not to acidify. In line-ups where one or two wines had been acidified and the others hadn't, those that were acidified stuck out like a sore thumb - disjointed and unharmonious.

In our experience, regions such as the Mittelrhein and Sachsen, best known for their high acidity, turned out their best-ever wines.

A note about the  2004s

A wonderful vintage with more classic race and focus than the  2003s. Fred Prinz says: “ If you draw a triangle with 2001, 2002 and 2003 in each corner, 2004 sits slap bang in the middle of all of them.” That’s a promising sign!