Continuing with my report on the VDP’s GG “sneak preview” tasting held in Wiesbaden at the end of August, this post will report on the Rheinhessen Rieslings. Previous posts covered the Mosel and Nahe regions.
The land that brought the world Liebfraumilch has pretty much put that sad chapter in German wine marketing to rest on the strength of this region’s top growers whose main focus is dry-style wines. Keller and Wittman are the acknowledged leaders, widely regarded as among the greatest producers of dry Rieslings in all of Germany, and their wines did not disappoint in 2012. Moving up quickly in reputation are Wagner-Stempel and Battenfeld-Spanier who also showed excellent wines. But other than these four, there is a lot of perfectly-decent but essentially unexciting GG Riesling from the Rheinhessen’s producers who are VDP members, with the occasional individual bottling rising to a higher level. I tasted five of the six flights of Rheinhessen Rieslings being offered.
Keller only showed two of his numerous GG and high-end dry wines this year. No Kirchspiel, Morstein, Absterde or G-Max, but the two wines he did show were outstanding. For the first time this year he showed a wine from the “Roter Hang”, vineyards on the west bank of the Rhine with red slate soils. Traditionally this region is considered the best region in the Rheinhesssen for fruity/sweet-styled wines. Keller’s Niersteiner Pettenthal showed a touch of sponti on the nose, but also great depth and minerality, just a perfect balance of ripe fruit and stony character, good weight, neither too unctuous or too austere, complex, racy and elegant. A great wine, as was the other Keller offering, the Dalsheimer Hubacker. Also with perfect fruit/acid balance, this is a tightly wound wine but with tremendous depth of fruit, intense and with great length. Very young but still showing a lot of complexity, a great wine in the making but it needs time.
The other big gun in the Rheinhessen is Wittman, and although I found his 2011’s to be excellent but not nearly as interesting as Keller’s, this year Wittman’s wines were some of the real stars of the tasting. Four wines shown, all from Westofen, starting with Aulerde, a seamless wine of real depth and outstanding minerality, complete and effortless, with great energy and length. Kirchspiel seemed quite similar to Aulerde today, a bit more minerality and depth, and also a tad richer tasting. Once again superb balance and length. Brunnenhäuschen was very comples with a slight earthy note adding to the minerality and depth of fruit. While the Kirchspiel seems more pure and precise, this is richer. Best of all, if only slightly, is Morstein, just brilliant acidity and depth of fruit that’s tightly wound now but very deep and long. You can sense the complexity lurking beneath the structure here, this will be a remarkable wine with some time. Overall, an outstanding collection of wines for Wittman in 2012.
Wagner-Stempel in Siefersheim makes two GG’s, and in recent years these have become among the best in the region. The 2011’s were excellent, and the 2012’s are at least as good and will probably develop even better. Hard to choose between the two; the Heerkretz has great fruit and depth to match its minerality, intense with good acidity and a lush character but not sweetish or overripe. The Höllberg is similar in style, but leaner and more structured showing more potential than current drinkability. Again great balance and minerality, but much more tightly wound and in need of time in a cellar. In time this could exceed the Heerkretz, but both are excellent. Based on the quality here, I can’t wait to taste their “Vom Porphyr” bottling, which in 2011 was close to GG in quality but at half the price.
I was especially interested to taste the wines of Battenfeld-Spanier, as their wines are now being imported by board participant Lyle Fass. Based on how their three wines showed, I’d say that Lyle has a winner here. From Mölsheim, the Am Schwarzen Herrgott had plenty of complexity with both nice fruit and good minerality, a somewhat softer structure and quite round, but not flabby. Nider-Flörshim Frauenberg had even more fruit intensity and minerality, quite stony and long. Similar if a bit less mineral was Hohen-Sülzen Kirchenstück which still had plenty of stone-inflected fruit and good acid balance and length. All of these wines showed a pretty consistent style, very drinkable but still well-structured, complex wines that can be enjoyed now but will age well.
A number other producers had excellent individual wines, although none showed the overall consistency and quality of the four above. A producer showing only one wine, Schloss Westerhaus, did well with a wine from Ingelheim also called Schloss Westerhaus that had generous fruit, seemingly at the high end of allowable sugar, but good balancing acidity and stony with good depth. I’ve enjoyed the fruity/sweet wines of Gunderloch for a long time, and stylistically one could taste their opulent style in the GG’s as well. Of the two wines shown, my favorite was the Niersteiner Pettenthal, with its peachy fruit, excellent acid balance with an undercurrent of minerality, quite round but with decent acidity, a slight wool note, and an opulent texture. Their Nackenheim Rothenberg was a bit softer, with some earthy/mushroom notes, the fruit more lemon and herbs than peach, the wine seemed a bit heavy-handed without enough acidity to lift the fruit, and a slightly bitter back note. Niersteiner Pettenthal also provided the best of the three wines offered by Küling-Gillot, a fruity wine with its sugar showing a bit in some apparent sweetness, but still good minerality and roundness. Not heavy or too fruit-forward, this had some complexity and potential. Also from Nierstein, the Ölberg was also fruity with good depth and balance, just enough acidity to maintain freshness. The Nackenheim Rothenberg “wurzelecht” was very rich and minerally, but also rather heavy and brooding in style, it could use a bit more acidity for balance.
Prinz Salm had two wines from Bingen, best being the Scharlachberg, with good fruit, a slight earthy note but good complexity and lots of minerality. It was better balanced than Salm’s Kirchberg, with its almost tart acidity and not enough fruit or richness to balance with the acidic structure, quite austere. Two wines from St. Antony were good, not excellent, with the Niersteiner Pettenthal showing a stinky nose (SO2), crisp acids with strong minerality in an austere style although with adequate fruit, while the Niersteiner Orbel was similar but also very high in acid and austere tasting, almost tart, without enough fruit showing today, although it might emerge with time. From Westofen the wines of K.F.Groebe were good, although in the shadow of Wittman (tasted in the same flight) and thus perhaps judged too harshly in comparison. Both Aulerde and Kirchspiel were solid wines, the former with good minerality and excellent balance, while the latter had a slight phenolic/varnish note that seemed to suggest skin contact during fermentation, but good fruit for balance and persistence. Other producers showing wines that I found to be just acceptable to decent were Rappenhof, Brüder Dr. Becker, and the state domaine Staatliche Weinbaudomäne Oppenheim.