Grosser Ring is 8 Nov.
Thanks. For some reason, I was thinking theyâd be in September.
It hailed in the Rheingau over the weekend. Added to the rest of the weather this year, donât expect much from 2024.
2 Likes
Today, it was sunny and warm. I worked in Niedermenniger Sonnenberg and stopped in Ockfener Bockstein. The grapes look good. Thereâs a German saying âHope dies last.â
5 Likes
Just bought as many 23 Falkensteins as I could.
3 Likes
As I wrote to someone yesterday, the 2023 vintage might be the last super-long lineup at Hofgut Falkenstein, and not just because the 2024 vintage will be a very small crop for many producers in the Saar region. We also wanted to downsize and streamline a little even before the severe frost damage in April. So, instead of offering 20 different Rieslings, we might (just) have 16 in the future.
There are villages on the Saar, such as Filzen and Serrig, that have vineyards unaffected by frost. In Serrig, WĂŒrtzberg and Saarstein are said to have good yields. We have some sites or parcels that look promising, such as Krettnacher Altenberg (which includes the place-names Auf dem Hölzchen and Ober SchĂ€fershaus) or Meyer Nepal, high up in Niedermenniger Herrenberg.
In contrast to most of the Saar and Ruwer, the Middle Mosel should have a bountiful harvest, although there are concerns about rot, and wine sales are down. Much depends on the weather in the next couple of months.
10 Likes
What were your impressions regarding 2023, as you visited winemakers last week?!
@Martin_Zwick @Robert_Panzer put his comments in the general riesling thread:
I head back to the US tomorrow.
The strengths of the '23s are an absolute delight, to my taste, as there is at once a sense of accessible intensity of fruit, moderate ++ acidity (8/g + g/L for dry wines, 9-10 g/L for Kabi/SpĂ€t) that is wonderfully harmonized/enrobed rather than overly aggressive or sticking out, and waay serious levels of dry extract. The overall balance is one of complete and harmonized wines, often times with a crazy beautiful Zen sensibility, with at once a sense of inviting finesse with serious serious substance (mineral/dry extract stuffing). Terroir expressions are clear as a bell. Certainly my sample size and the quality level of the producers I work with doesnât speak to how everyone did, but the collections at SchĂ€fer Fröhlich!! (offer is out now, folksâŠ! Holy moly), Clemens Busch!, Alex Loersch! (whose overall 2023 collection won the Vinum prize for Collection of the Year, as well as his Piesporter Goldtropfchen Kabi which won Kabi of the year! in VinumâŠ), JJ PrĂŒm, Stefan Steinmetz!! (holy moly), and Max Ferd Richter are plain tremendous. Thorsten Melsheimer continues to make outrageously good sparkling wines, as well as singular and compelling wines in his own little seemingly ignored universe (by US Riesling freaks), which is plain dumb and inexcusable.
The expanding sense of a global economic crisis, of markets that are struggling for all sorts of reasons, have many producers feeling a serious pinch, with sales down significantly. Stress and anxiety are pretty high for many, with the '24 season being of the most stressful and demanding in any recent history. Hopefully stable sunny skies and cool nights set in as we head down the home stretch of the season, as there hasnât been much of a summer to speak of whatsoever. These themes are similar in France as well, although prestigious and pricier regions/appellations donât seem to be suffering the same market pinch (Burgundy, Champagne).
Thatâs what iâm tossing in the ring for now.
Santé et Bonheur
2 Likes
Will it always be the same 16 or vary depending on the vintage?
If itâs the former, which 4 bottlings are planned to be dropped?
1 Like
Nothing has been decided yet. That said, it would probably be the same four or five. One could be Mammen or even Ternes.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing. Wow was that a great report.
2 Likes
I have loved Ternes. Would hate to see that eliminated.
1 Like
Youâre not the only one. Ternes has its fans.
1 Like
if you are taking bets on whether you make more or less than 16 Rieslings, I will take the over 
1 Like
Letâs start a Save Ternes drive! The full program with petitions, placards, marches and sit ins.
3 Likes
Ha! If the weather holds, we should have enough grapes to produce twenty or more casks, but some of them will be blended together or used for sparkling wine. 
2 Likes
We havenât decided yet whether to keep Ternes or Mammen as separate bottlings. The highly rated 2018 Euchariusberg SpĂ€tlese #14 was actually Förster and Ternes. Förster is a small plot. We need to pick grapes from neighboring parcels, such as Ternes, to have enough for a press load. The other 2018 Euchariusberg SpĂ€tlese #24 was Mammen and Ternes. Mammen was seldom a parcel that we fermented, much less bottled, on its own because of meager yields.
As I pointed out to a fellow board member, Gisela (#8) is about 0.30 ha in size. Although we always prune short (i.e., one cane per vine) for all our vineyards, the yields can vary depending on the vintage and the juice-to-skin ratio. We usually need a surface area of about 0.20 ha for a single cask of wine. In 2023, we were able to produce two casks from this choice parcel, but only one was bottled as such. And this doesnât include a part of Gisela that, in past years, was picked and pressed with Kugel Peter (#12) to fill a cask.
4 Likes
Thanks for all the detail as usual @Lars_Carlberg! I have a question about Arthuro/Athuro/Marlies/Mammen. I see all these names on Kabinetts from the same vineyard, each with #13. Why all the different names? How are they differentiated? Thanks!
1 Like
These are great questions. The official approval number includes a lot number, which we now highlight in bold print, before the year of submission. We use this lot number as a quasi-cask number. We used the number 13 for Arthuro, which was misspelled as âAthuroâ in 2019, for a few vintages. In 2022, this number was used for Marlies, because Arthuro encountered drought stress. Mammen was given this lot number in the 2020 vintage. These are all different parcels on the same slope.
3 Likes
The other two vintages of Arthuro are 2023 and 2021.
2 Likes