First week of March I escaped the jaws of school and headed south to Germany for a walkabout among some of the winemakers, to taste their 2015s from tank. Let me say this - the 2015 vintage delivers in every sense of the way the optimistic promises hinted before and during the harvest last autumn. I would go so far as to claim that some of the wines are the best I have ever tasted in my life from this region and that’s quite a powerful statement given my long history of testing the winemaker’s patience when standing outside their doors shouting Weeeeeeeinproooobe! Before you give me any credit to call out this vintage as one of the legendary vintages in Germany the last 50 years, let me disclose that many of the winemakers themselves have compared the 2015 vintage with some of the greatest vintages they have ever experienced. And given the fact that many of them have more than 50 harvests under their belt, that’s saying quite a lot. Especially because you will normally have to turn to torture to make them say even the slighest positive word about their own wines. I hear so often that we joke about the greatest vintage being the latest vintage and that every new vintage is called “the greatest ever” but when you follow the trail to the source you will notice that you never hear this from the winemakers themselves. So when you hear even THEM hinting that this vintage was one for the books, then you know you’re in the presence of something truly special…
During the short time I travelled around the countryside I had time to visit and taste the 2015s (and some 2014s) at the following estates:
Fritz Haag - Brauneberg, Mosel
Schloss Lieser - Lieser, Mosel
Willi Schaefer - Graach, Mosel
Reinhold Haart - Piesport, Mosel
Zilliken - Saarburg, Saar
Keller - Flörsheim-Dalsheim, Rheinhessen
Emrich-Schönleber - Monzingen, Nahe
Gut Hermannsberg - Niederhausen, Nahe
Dönnhoff - Oberhausen, Nahe
Jakob Schneider - Niederhausen, Nahe
Schäfer-Fröhlich - Bockenau, Nahe
So I will try to share my impressions from the entire line-up at most of these estates, when time permits. Some where in a different state of development. Almost no wine was bottled (bottling for many starts towards the end of april), the majority still on their lees in fuders, unfiltred. ALL the visits had its fun moments. One for the books was tasting solo mano a mano with Tim Fröhlich, who had just come from a meeting and seemed unusually tired - a big yawn on his behalf as he poured the first wine confirmed my initial impression but you know, when two wine nerds meet and discuss their passion…six hours later I pulled out from Bockenau, wondering where I would find an open restaurant after 10 pm. Normally tasting with Tim means five hours of ultra-focused sipping and discussions but this time we somehow managed a new record, despite both of us being exhausted from previous activities. In fact, I did hurry down to Niederhausen just to catch Wigbert closing the restaurant but he generously provided me with a glass of a Jakob Schneider Riesling and a sandwich with blutenwurst. If you have never dined here while visiting the Nahe, PLEASE don’t miss this wonderful experience. World-class food just adjacent to the Hermannshöhle vineyard. Here’s a link: Restaurant Hermannshöhle
Another incredible experience was climbing down into the cellar together with Werner Schönleber after tasting tank samples with him, but now tasting the wines straight from the fuders. Man, does he have some beauties waiting in those old barrels… Or when tasting with Wilhelm Haag (at Fritz Haag) - seeing him disappear down into the cellar and then hearing his son Oliver shouting - “Not NOW, father! We’re filtering those wines!!”. Well, taste we did and oh boy do they have some stellar wines waiting for us. At Jakob Schneider it was this fun experience of Jakob having different fuders of the 2015 and then mixing them together in different proportions, posing questions like: “What do you think, 25% of the first fuder, mixed with 75% from the second, or do you propose a different mixture?”. Or when Thomas Haag, just returning from a VDP meetuing in Mainz, hurrying out to the cellar and returning with samples of every possible wine and excusing himself because he had to work in the cellar and wondered if I wouldn’t mind being all alone with the wines, tasting them at my own leisure. Or tasting with Hanno and Dorothee Zilliken together with Max Gerstl and Heiner Lobenberg, or when tasting with Helmut Dönnhoff and him revealing there’s a new wine no one else have tasted before… BLIMEY! The WILLPOWER it takes to leave all that and go back to teaching!
So expect a LOT of subjective impressions in this thread! However, before dwelling deeper into those magical moments, I have a big sack of shrimps waiting in the kitchen and I need to find an appropriate Riesling to accompany the dinner so meanwhile I just share my impressions from two different German Riesling I opened recently.
2007 Reinhold Haart Wintricher Grafenberg Riesling Kabinett
Tasting this makes me - almost - angry. Why? Because I bought this wine straight from the hands from the vinemaker while visiting Theo and Johannes in Piesport and at that time I bought mostly Riesling Spätlese from every estate. Only to realise NOW how incredibly delicious a Kabinett can be now, with some years in the bottle. I was there with a car and I think I bought a 6-pack. When I should have bouth cases. It has all those usual features so often found in wines from the Haart family. Despite not being a Piesporter wine you still notice the tropical fruit and almost “oily” character in the wine. At this developmental stage, after eight years in the bottle, it offers delightful tropical fruits. Think yellow and red colours, like taking a bite of a succulent, red peach, add some mint, currant and a bowl of spices and you get an intriguing mix of flavours that keep holding your interest. Fresch, juicy, lip-smacking and a lovely tension and buoyancy keeps you pouring for a second sip and a third and…well, a bottle that is gone far too quickly! The minerality keeps it rigid and focused and the acidity balances the creamy, sappy fruit and above all, the salty slate makes it drying out towards the end. No, I mean, sure - you feel the residual sugar but it ends in such a fresh and invigoratingly salty/stony style that your tongue is reminding you to take another sip because you feel very, very…thirsty! 92 points.
2002 Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese
I opened these two bottles at the same time and there were moments when I had the Grafenberg Kabinett as a better wine than this and moments when I felt the opposite, that this lovely Spätlese had an advantage but at the end of the day, I feel that both have its merits. Do you know what the damn problem with this wine is? It’s a bottle that I have only recently purchased and before that, it rested - not like the Norwegian Blue - but really resting in a cold, damp cellar beneath the Zilliken house in Saarburg. And wines resting in such a perfect environment seem to be aging in a glacial pace. Sometimes they feel like they have just been bottled. And then there’s Hanno and his d*mn excursions into the cellar, only to pop up later with some unmarked bottles and a big smile on his face, urging me to guess the vintage. Here’s an account on how THAT went the previous vintage last year.
Weingut Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken
I though I’d offer a small interlude with Zilliken from Saarburg - a visit to anyone passionate about Riesling is a “must-do”. I think Hanno and Dorothee Zilliken might be the only ones in Germany who would ask you to please keep the engine running while you’re visiting and tasting. Being slightly cooler, Hanno explained, in the 70s, 80s and even 90s you were lucky to have three vintages for every 10 year period where you would have most of the grapes reaching full ripeness. Nowadays almost every vintage so just a l i i i i i t l e more global warning and Saar will be perfect (whereas some sites with perfect sun exposure along the Mosel can already be too warm in very hot vintages). So feel free to leave your car keys inside and the engine running while you’re visiting. This year and maybe the next one - then Saar will probably reach an opimally climatic peak.
I guess Hanno considered 2013 to be one of those few outlier vintages remaining in the 21th century. The challenges for the Zilliken family seem to be similar to what many other estates reported so if you visited at harvest time and were contemplating about the unusual scarcity of people in the villages it’s because every passing visitor was probably kidnapped by the winemakers to hurridly climb the vineyards and help out with the record-fast harvest as the grapes turned from still somewhat unripe to overripe in matter of days. Hanno’s story reminded me of what Helmut Dönnhoff told me one year, that the postman came by to deliver the mail and Helmut asked him:
- What will you do now?
- I will of course continue delivering people’s mail, the postman replied.
- No, you’re NOT, Helmut replied and pointed up towards the vineyards.
So a lot of stress to pull everything in while the grapes were still healthy. In fact, Zilliken did have an opportunity to bottle both Spätlese and Auslese but they simply didn’t feel that the ripeness and the extract was sufficient to produce them with such high quality and style that has always been the hallmark of their estate so they decided that the juice would go into fewer wines and by that make the wines they actually release being top notch. And admirable effort but probably not a winner economically speaking. So no Riesling Alte Reben this year, and no Diabas, no Grosses Gewächs, no Spätlese and no Auslese - but nevertheless some delious juice in the glass.
2013 Zilliken Riesling Trocken
Delighful, elegant filigree from the very first sip, is the first line in my notebook. It’s as if you feel aromas of flinty dust on the nose, mineral dust, a tad smokiness, almost like a dusty layer abobe the liquid in the glass. Utterly pure and transparent yet with enough stuffing and extract in its texture. Utterly elegant, very crisp and vivid, with lime-peel, white peach and green apples. And smoke! From grinding two pieces of slate together. The saliva keeps you drooling uncontrollably with your lips smacking to save the day. Not a pretty sight if I would take a selfie at this very moment. 87-88 points.
2013 Zilliken Saarburger Riesling Trocken
Take everything you find in the wine above and make it a little more polished. Divide the crushed slate into even a finer powder to a accentuate the minerality and salinity. Add to it flavours of violet, almost minty violets and mixed it with more yellow fruits compared to the brighter white peach infused regular Riesling Trocken. A touch of mandarine-peel bitterness towards the finish, making it more interesting. This really is the epitome of succulent juiciness. I teach biology at school and try to describe to my students that in order to reach the reflex to swallow the food it needs to be moist from the saliva and oh boy, this really makes you swallow. 88-89 points.
2013 Zilliken Butterfly
Considerably rounder in style, with more residual sugar but as with other 2013 it finishes almost dry, making it a very refreshing. Yellow peach, some nectarine, quite juicy, medium-full and well-balanced. A typical food wine that I imagine must do very well in restaurants. 86-88 points.
2013 Zilliken Saarburger Riesling Feinherb
So yellow in colour I was expecting a little more yeallow fruit and roundness, like the wine above, but instead you are met by this very pure and surprisingly weightless, levitating wine that seem to just touch your tongue ever so lightly as if not wishing to step on it. Flint stoniness with added smoke, delicate fresh herbs and only towards the finish you get more yellow apples mixed with dito green. Very elegenat finish with a lovely boyancy. 89-91+ points.
2013 Zilliken Saarburger Riesling Kabinett
Very light in style, weighing in at 7.5%, it starts of with sweetness on the palate but as the acidity kicks in and wraps up the entire package on each side of your mouth, it slightly erases the initial delicate sweetness with added salinity. Very lucid and fresh, delicate on all senses as is so often used when describing Zilliken’s wines but for an even higher rating I would need more energy and extraxt on the palate. 87-88 points.
2013 Zilliken Bockstein Riesling Kabinett
A totally different style here, more oppulent, juicy, rounder and with more yellow apricote and orange-peel. But get this…with racy acidity that makes it very difficult to settle for one glass only. Smoke on the nose, the succulent texture on the palate being very flirty and overall very fine, transparant and light Riesling that reminds me more of the classic type of Kabinett from before - not this declassified Auslese-versions you come across in so many vintages. 89-90 points.
2013 Zillken Rausch Riesling Kabinett
Compared to the Bockstein this is both more elegant yet denser with more stuffing and hence to my palate a wine offering even more drinking pleasure. Influenced by teaching in mathematics I imagined it with the basic characteristics (fruit, acidity, minerality) as vectors pointing in every direction with uttermost, razor-sharp precision. Crisp, lazer-like focus with hints of melon and pink grapefruit, It seems to accelerate into this extra gear making it levitate above the ground with a wonderful vibrating energy and a long, complex and mineral-driven up-up-up-lift finish. A class act. 92-93 points. It really is a remarkable vineyard, this Saarburger Rausch, one of the very few that has this soil type, a mixture of two thirds blue slate and one third volcanic soils, the only other one that comes to mind would be the Abtsberg vineyard in Ruwer, according to Hanno. Both capable of creating this zappy, complex Rieslings with invigorating tension and complexity.
2011 Zilliken Saarburger Riesling Alte Reben
Hanno could of course not prevent himself from opening some more bottles “while we’re at it”. Harvested from several plots of old vines with widely spaced clusters and tiny berries. As good as I remember it upon release. Crystalline precision, crushe the stone and then liquify it and you get the crisp, stoney feeling, add to it cool, snow-like fruit with lemongrass/citrus and a very lively, boyant texture and you start to get the idea. Flushes down your throat like detergent in a washing machine (I know that doesn’t sound too positive but what’s that liquid called that you can use to flush your mouth after tootbrushing them, like an extra wave of cleaning?). One of the most delicate and filigree examples of Riesling from this vintage in Germany. 92 points.
2011 Zilliken Rausch Riesling Grosses Gewächs
Remains almost as weightless and delicate as the wine above but add to it even broader, deeper layers of extract and you have the Grosses Gewächs. Silky, almost creamy (but not yellow creamy but think creamy with white flowers and white peach - anything white will do), beautifully caressing ripe acidity like sun rays on a frosty window a cold winter morning. I find myself saying “crushed stones” all the time but how else to describe this wonderful feeling of salinity and minerality? Crystal-clear, totally transparent in its flavour profile, laser-like focus throughout the drinking experience and such utterly pure, seamless finesse on the long finish. How can you possibly go wrong here? 94 points.
2012 Zilliken Rausch Riesling Diabas
So fun to jump like this between different wines and vintages and have the possibility to compare! I’ll start from the end. A loooong, persistent finish makes it difficult to continue to the next wine since this stays on your palate and refuses to budge. Feels a little more creamy and above all juicer than the ultra-precise GG and that’s what the extra r.s. usually does - rounds it up a bit and in good years, does it without taking away the balance. Otherwise I think this is basically the same material as the GG but just that one barrel didn’t ferment completely out (so basically a “halb-trocken” version of the GG) and thus not fitting with the legat boundaries of a GG according to VDP rules. Lovely floral notes with some slate smokiness. Similar to the GG, this comes out as so incredibly graceful and fine-tuned. Impeccable juice in a glass. 93 points.
1983 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Halb-trocken
Obviosuly a completely different create (I have learned my lesson and today I’m always guessing 10-20+ years compared to what I really think), this offers up a delightful mix of swetness and freshness rolling out on your tongue like a silky carpet (imagine the age you will normally guess with that kind of first impression…). The acidity more integrated with the creamy, yellow fruit, with hints of butterscotch and some smoke. Lovely liquid gold feeling. It really adds to the experience when a wine can look this good. 89 points.
1983 Zilliken Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Spätlese
Yes, it’s true, some years the Bockstein vineyard also produced Spätlese. Compared to the other 83er above this too has a lovely note of smokiness adding to the spicy flavour profile yet it possesses more fruit of mango, some pinapple, again a very lovely creamy texture and in the middle of all this integrated fruit you have this refreshing flinty smokiness (yes, again) and flinty stone character that makes it fresh and boyant. I think this is what Hanno would like more of us to taste, to see what Riesling can truly be like with considerable age but the truth is that very little of the output from any German winemaker will reach this type of maturity amongst us consumers. And who can blame us when young Riesling can be so refreshing and hard to resist!? I’m not taking the blame for this! 91 points.
1991 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese (Auction)
Lots of herbs here, mixed with round stones and flinty smoke. Fruitwise its an intriguing mixture with green AND yellow apples, melon, mint and some starfruit - incredibly salivating on the palate makes you politely ask for another napkin to hide the most obvious drooling. Very herby and refreshing with ripe acidity well integrated but in no way “creamy” like the older examples above. This feels fresh and delicate so trust me, you won’t mumble about this wine being 22-23 years old as you sit opposite Hanno. So what - I guessed maybe a 2004 on this one. For a while I forgot how and where it was stored. And after all, it’s a Zilliken. So I should have added ten years to my guess. I would love to have a stash of this at home to sip every now and then but how on earth do you get hold of bottles like this? 92 points.
2009 Zilliken Rausch Riesling Diabas
Strange thing to suddenly jump to a 09, you say? Well, I describe them in the order they were served. Compared to the younger versions of this wine, here are the first tiny signs that the Diabas with this age is beginning to peel of its initial baby youth and enter into a more adolescent style of maturity (and a long, long way to fully blossom as a true adult). Pronounced flavours of spices and herbs, like dried grass still left on the field. The r.s. is 15 grams in this one and it has already started to integrate very nicely with the acidity. Not creamy in any sense but still very soft-spoken, almost mellow in the middle but refreshing towards the end as the acidity on the finish kind of reappears (with a vengance) to make it succulent and mouthwatering as the wine sploshes down your dry throat. 91+ points.
2011 Zilliken Rausch Riesling Kabinett
Oh, succulent peach, juicy and refined at the same time, adds to the initial peachy flavours with an intriguing mix of fresh citrus, mango, mandarin-peel, and even some flowers. And all this mixed up with an inner core of stone-stone-stone creating wonderful complexity of this typical sweet-sour-salt feeling. So delicate and energetic and at the same time so graceful. No wonder another sip is mandatory, despite Hanno’s effort to pour the next wine. No-no, we won’t have that so I politely asked for a refill to sample this wine once more before the next one arrives. 92 points.
2012 Zilliken Rausch Riesling Auslese
Holy shit… What to say about this one? Harvested from cold, shrivelled grapes, it bounces in your mouth like a flipper, cold minty melon flavours with white peach as the wing man and passion fruit as the backup. Loads of minerality and also balanced with a lovely touch of salinity. A strange mixture indeed as it feels both tropical yet crystalline and zappy, crisp and mineral-driven. Layers of complexity here - optimally one should just sit with the glass for a long time, contemplating while the flavours change on the nose and palate but Hanno was already waving with the next bottle so I had to leave this one in a hurry. 95+ points.
1995 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese AP #1
Mature, creamy, caramell-coloured and completely integrated in all aspects of flavour, mineral and acidity profiles. Feels very tropical with mango, pineapple, vanilla, and yellow kiwi - like a meringue cake. And at the same time with such a precise, levitating acidity, perfectly integrated with the fruit at this stage. An Auslese with tension and up-lift, at this age. Every component seem to have taken its place and are now neatly tucked in to display percet and utter harmony. 95 points. A quick look in my cellar - number of bottles: 0. Damn…
1959 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese Trocken
You see, this is what I’m talking about. This is what he does to visitors. You’re happy if your guess comes at least within 30 years of the correct vintage and you leave with yet another humbling experience as to your ability to guess the vintage of a Riesling. Not! Smoke on the nose as well as first impression on the palate, completely dry at this stage with more notes of crushed rocks and polished stone rather than fruit flavours. Looks and feels like liquid gold or some ester mixture taken straight out of the chemistry lab where I teach. To me, more interesting than delicious as I find hints of sherry notes and I usually don’t appreciate that even in young wines, you know, the way a Chablis can get with some bottle age. However, many of my friends would drool over a wine like this and insist there’s nothing better than this combined with tapas and a bowl of nuts at the wine bar. 85 points. Since this was dry already from the beginning (Spätlese trocken) I would love to find out how a regular Spätlese (or Auslese) of this age would taste today. Probably almost dry but I suspect with added complexity as the sweetness has melted together with the acidity.
1976 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese Halb-trocken
Nowadays there’s no more “halb-trocken” bottlings but basically it’s the same as a Diabas version. With age this has taken on a full-bodied, creamy texture and compared to the dry 59 above, the younger age and the added residual sugar from the beginning lift up the flavour profile a little more, to make room for hints of papaya, mango dried apricot, and some yellow stone melon. Above all, what makes it such a joy to drink is the feeling of seemless integration between acidity, minerality and fruit. 91 points.
Oh, before I continue I should point out that tasting with Hanno carries this love/hate relationship. After the tasting of the recent vintage, Hanno very much enjoys running down to the cellar only to return with these damn, unmarked bottles. I mean, have you seen the cellar? It’s like this imaginary this-is-how-a-cellar-would-look-like-if-I-could-invent-one-from-scratch-in-your-dreams. Damp, cold, several layers beneath the rock with stalactites forming from the roof. Now, imagine how a wine evolves in these perfect conditions. Why the cursing and why is it love & hate? Oh, don’t get me wrong - I absolutely love this unique opportunity to taste wines I would never have come across otherwise. Sure, you might find an occasional bottle on the internet but that’s usually a bottle that has been stored way, way too warm in a store somewhere for many summers and will most likely just disappoint. But this…this is something different. The bottles are absolutely prestine with utterly perfect storage and has never left the famous Zilliken cellar. So where’s the “hate”? The reason that it’s not uncommon to have this type of dialogue at the table with Hanno Zilliken:
Hanno returns from the cellar with some bottles and pours the first one.
- Well?
- Hum…a more yellowish colour…on the nose, a little more perfumed and some petroleum compared to the new release - this one has some age!, I shout out triumphantly.
- Yes-yes, please go on.
- But still with lot’s of freshness and the sweetness slighly integrated with the acidity so can’t be that old but still, hum…
- Yes, carry on, Hanno replies with that disturbing smile in his eyes, making me suspect I should guess older than I really think.
- Hmm, I was going to say 2004 but with the smile on your face I reckon it’s older so I’m actually going to say 2002!
- Ahhh, not bad. Really not bad at all! (Encouraging words from Hanno Zilliken. What a relief!)
- Really!? Not bad at all? I was that good? Spot on or did I just missed it by a year?, I ask eagerly, thinking that shit Miran, you’re not such a bad taster after all.
- Yes, yes, really not bad at all. Almost there.
- Stop teasing me! So what are we talking about here? 2001? 2002??
- Almost. It’s a 1983.
- But… But that means I was 20 years off!
- Well, yes…
Do you get the picture? So you can imagine the slight drop of self-confidence. I think I hit rock-bottom once when I was sure a wine was from 1993 or possibly 1989 but it turned out to be a 1959. That damn cellar!
See…?? He’s teasing with you! He’s exposing you to all these mind games!! Same thing with this. It feels much younger than its supposedly teenage life. And more, I remember tasting this when it was released and frankly, I liked it but I felt it didn’t have that extra nerve and electricity so often found in Zilliken wines. To me, it was softer and more subdued, sweet and arguably with lots of filigree but not with the tension I expect in a Spätlese from Zilliken. Well, lo and behold, because here we have a completely different creature, with a lovely combination of laser-like acidity, brimming with energy, scoops of salty slate minerality, a cool feeeling of wet stone pebbles and only then you add the notes of yellow peach, some apricot, a hint of pineapple and and sprinkle of fresh grapefruit and lime to keep it vividly fresh. And speaking of a sprinkle - there’s this very light, delicate nuance of vanilla, mixed with melon and mint towards the end, as the long finish lingers on your tongue. Exotic and tropical yet fresh with a feeling of cool and sappy fruit. Impossible not to like if you have a similar palate. 92 points.
And the 2015s from this estate… Yes, you probably guessed it. Hanno compares it to 1975. Look up the history books and you’ll realise what that implies.