Last week-end the second Berlin Signature Tasting took place at Rest. anabelas kitchen. Together with Michael Quentel/WEINWISSER we presented 20 vintages of Hirtzberger “Singerriedel” Riesling Smaragd from 1990-2013. And as a great honor Franz Hirtzberger came to Berlin to take part. BTW, the first time that so many vintages “Singerriedel” could be tasted side by side.
Bottom line, they need time. WOTN was 1997. One of the best dry Riesling I have ever tasted, 98/100. Lemon yellow colour and such fresh&young and pure&precise on the palate. The 1990 was even 5-10 years to young, bone-dry with 1g RS and tasted like glacier water with lemon yellow color. 1992 and 1999 were spectacular too. If you want to buy a vintage then I recommend 2013, maybe in couple of years as good as 1997. Also 2011 is worth a buy. For the record, 2002 was outstanding and 2004 was great too. 2003 was surprisingly good. More info in the coming weeks by an article of Michael Quentel in the swiss wine-magazine WEINWISSER. http://weinwisser.org
Franz Hirtzberger told us that they harvest very, very late in order to get the perfect physiological ripeness in the grapes. His credo is the perfect physiological ripeness of the grapes in the vineyard and controlled faineance in the cellar.
Franz Hirtzberger
http://www.hirtzberger.com
Cheers,
Martin Zwick
Hi Martin
I’m looking forward to reading about them.
Do you have the '99 in fresh memory?
I was very negatively surprised by this wine a couple of years ago; a wine absorbed by botrytis elements, with no aromatic clarity and not an easy drinker.
/Ulrich
That sounds a lot like a 2005 I had not long ago.
Ulrich,
our bottle showed no botrytis! Lemon yellow color and showed a vivid acidity with purity&freshness. Such delicate&sublime and alles ist wie an einer Perlenschnur aufgezogen. 94-95/100
For example 1998 showed botrytis and was quite barock.
Come to Berlin, 1999 is waiting for you.
Prost,
Martin
YES, 2005 was too big also at our tasting.
Thanks - nice to know!
“Come to Berlin, 1999 is waiting for you.”
= accepted 
re 2005: I have had a few glorious 2005’s recently, so I’m not too worried about the ones that I have in stock.
Love the notes. They were our first stop on our trip for good reason.
Martin, thanks much to you and Michael for organizing this tasting. It was not only an interesting and very educational tasting, the location and accompanying dinner was quite enjoyable as well.
The great in-depth harvest report for all vintages tasted given by Franz Hirtzberger helped a lot to understand how his wines are developing and to learn about their potential.
Having 20 vintages of Singerriedel in one tasting was quite an experience. Here are my favorite top 5 vintaqes (in order):
1997
2004
2001
2013
1990
Best,
Jens
P.S.
Just looked in my notes. 2002 was outstanding and 2004 was great too. 2003 was surprisingly good.
@ David: I’ve found the 2005 to be the weakest wine in this line-up
Nice to hear. I’ve a small 1997-2002 collection of the Singerriedel and the Hochrain.
