I’m sorry to hear that. If you are ever in the Indianapolis Indiana area PM me so I can open a great bottle with you.
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Recently opened a Burklin-Wolf 1997 Pechstein. Excellent and still young.
Matthew,
I too am dipping my toe into this style of wine. Years ago (early 00s) I would taste some of these wines when young and think “wow this is showing some alcohol and is disjointed and wow it’s expensive”, so it slipped to the back burner.
Recently, I’ve gotten to try some things courtesy of a friend - 11 Donnhoff Hermannshohle GG and some things from Van Volxem and hey, they’re a lot more charming than I had thought. So I’ve been looking at some of the Reserve GGs from Loosen and a few others.
Based on this limited sample size and again with lots of generalization, I’d put it like this - either drink them young or drink them at 10+ years. My gut says that while they have the structure of white Burgundy, their aging curve is closer to white Rhone wines where they’re just unpleasant to drink around 5-7 years post vintage.
Thanks,
Zachary
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That’s a wonderfully kind response. When we finally have the house built in Florida, consider yourself invited!
This thread is why I spend too much of my time reading this site. Thanks all.
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As William Kelley mentioned Koehler-Ruprecht, I was host of a K-R vertical back to 1996 in 2016. Here some impressions and article by Stuart Pigott.
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Koehler-Ruprecht is in their own league. Can be extremely impressive. Most are
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“What’s the Matter with Grosses Gewächs,” an article by David Schildknecht, takes a critical look at GGs.
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As I mentioned before, there’s nothing like old Grünhaus, especially from Abtsberg, which, before the mid-20th century, was formerly known as Herrenberg. The 1990 Abtsberg Spätlese trocken has only 11 percent alcohol. Most dry Kabinetts, much less GGs, have higher alcohol levels. The 1989 Abtsberg Spätlese trocken has just 9.5 percent alcohol. Alfons Heinrich, who retired in 2003, was the longtime cellarmaster at Maximin Grünhaus. Stefan Kraml took over the winemaking duties with the 2004 vintage. He came over from the von Othegraven estate.
Over the weekend, I had a couple of mature residually sweet Grünhaus wines. One was a Kabinett from today’s Herrenberg. The other, a Spätlese from Abtsberg. But the star was Weiser-Künstler’s 2013 Gaispfad trocken, which was refreshing and a mere 10 percent alcohol. It wasn’t the Kabinett trocken either.
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I am on the same frequency
And luckily the lesser Prädikat Abfüllungen are still cheap. Also the mature ones from the 90’s
I bought a stash of QBA for sub 10€ and they still steal the show served with almost any other dry Riesling
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My first WB comment here…
My limited GG experience has overwhelmingly positive across all ages. But the ones that have truly floored me and helped solidify German riesling as my favorite genre of wine had 10-15 years of age. Last year it was 07 Kirchspiel out of magnum. In '22 it was 08 Felseneck and 07 AbtsE. In '21 it was 09 AbtsE and 10 Felseneck. Two recent dives into Von der Fels 04 have also been very good. I feel like the '19 and '21 GGs will age even better than predecessors, which is maybe a nod to the evolution of the GG winemaking itself?
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Whatup Shiraz!
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Cheers Robert! Hope to see you in person soon!
Exact same experience here. I don‘t even open any GGs young anymore. 10 is the minimum age. Before that more often then not they are dormant.
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Could you help me out with the math on the 9.5%? I get how you could get 11% if picked at 76 Oe but not sure how you satisfy Spätlese and trocken and get much lower than 10.5% or so. 76 Oe converts to 12.97 fully dry from the conversions I can find on the intertubes. I’m just not sure how to convert g/l rs to Oe.
Thanks all for an interesting discussion. @Lars_Carlberg I get Mutter Anna every year from Jay (although this year it was Egon) and also have been buying a bit of Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle and a few other GGs for the last 5-10 years but haven’t had many older examples.
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Sorry for the delayed response. I returned home from pruning vines. Despite a degree in economics, my math skills aren’t strong anymore. I’ll ask Johannes instead. In the meantime, the minimum must weight for Spätlese might have been a little lower in 1989, and legally dry is up to 9 grams of sugar per liter. At Hofgut Falkenstein, we have had Kabinett trocken wines with about 80 degrees Oechsle and 10 percent alcohol. It depends on the efficiency of the alcoholic conversion in a given vintage. Some vintages have lower or higher conversion rates—i.e., the conversion of sugar to alcohol.
My pleasure, Nathan. I love Mutter Anna. Egon is great, too.
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Today, I had a chance to ask Johannes. He said that a simple rule of thumb is Oechsle divided by 8. For example, 80 degrees Oechsle would be 10 percent alcohol and 76 degrees Oechsle would be 9.5 percent alcohol. A wine journalist visited us this afternoon, so I didn’t have time to ask him more questions, and tomorrow I depart for Chicago, where there’s a winter storm warning in effect.
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Thanks, that is a good enough explanation for me. Safe travels. Please let me know if you ever come through NC.
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