Here brand new photos via iPhone from Roman Niewodniczanski/Van Volxem
Weissburgundertrauben aus Junganlagen in Schieferhanglage in Wawern/Saar unmittelbar vor der Lese am 22. Oktober 2009
Pinot blanc grapes from young yineyards at slate slopes in Wawern/Saar shortly before the harvest 22. Oktober 2009
Erntemannschaft bei Beginn der Vorlese im Wiltinger Volz Riesling (für Saar Riesling) am frühen Morgen des 16. Oktobers bei -3°C
Harvest team for a Pre-Harvest at Wiltinger Volz Riesling (for Saar Riesling) in the early morning of 16. Oktobers bei -3°C
26. Oktober 2009, vollreife Rieslingtrauben aus der Lage Wiltinger Braunfels (für Van Volxem Saar Riesling, da aus dem schwächeren unteren Riegel)
- Oktober 2009, very ripe Riesling grapes from the parcel Wiltinger Braunfels (for Van Volxem Saar Riesling, because from a weaker part)
Translation of the text from Roman Niewodniczanski by David Schildknecht/WA
INTERIM 2009 VINTAGE REPORT OF NOV. 26 FROM ROMAN NIEWODNICZANSKI, WEINGUT VAN VOLXEM
"Even if quantities are again very small in the steep slate sites on the Saar due to the wet, cold June [flowering] (at Van Volxem we anticipate barely 40 hectoliters per hectare), it’s hard for us to repress our enthusiasm about the outstanding quality of this year’s grapes. At most the fruit of younger vineyards - except where radically thinned - failed to achieve the desired quality due to summer drought.
After having begun roughly two weeks ago with selective pre-harvesting (removing over-ripe grapes) and the picking of the Burgundian varieties [here almost entirely Pinot Blanc], we have allowed ourselves and our 45 crew members a harvest-free day of recuperation today, given the stable weather at the beginning of wintertime [sic]. At this point, 19 of our 42 hectares of steep slate slopes are still hanging - largely healthy thanks to the pre-harvest. The really fabulous aromas range from ripe peach through apricot to litchi, candied orange peel [yes, there’s a single word for that in German!] and muscat flower [sic].
The top sites of Wiltinger Braunfels, Volz, Scharzhofberg, as well as Kanzemer Altenberg and Wawerner Goldberg have hardly been touched by us yet. With our bee-like industrious crew, we’re as it were slowly circling around and closing in on our best sites. There is no need to hurry, even though physiological ripening mediated by photosynthesis and foliage is for the most part over in many of our vineyards, after they were hit by two hard frosts last week. Fortunately, thanks to our low yields and perfect conditions, the grapes were so ripe before the frost that we have no need to fear the loss of further physiological [sic] increase in must weights. On the contrary, we are delighted that the must weights even in the top sites of the Saar have not broken the 100 degree Oechsle barrier, and we are hoping for further aroma-accretion in particular through natural enzymatic processes [in the berries] following the frosty nights. A sampling from the Scharzhofberg yesterday revealed perfectly ripe, healthy, fabulously [traumhaft] aromatic fruit, including in the vineyards of my colleagues Egon Müller and Kesselstatt, who have also not harvested their best sites.
The acid levels of our perfectly yellow and highly aromatic musts are for the most part - with the exception of grapes from young vines - stable at 7-9 grams. We anticipate almost exclusively tartaric [i.e., virtually no malic acid], which will certainly be good for the digestibilité of the 2009s. [Perhaps tellingly, there is no English word for Bekömmlichkeit = digestibilité. At some point, I’m going to write a whole piece on what this fact might tell us.] Thus far, 2009 has proven from our perspective to be a great vintage for harmonious dry wines. With the higher [forecast] temperatures of the coming week, we hope for an increase in botrytis, so that we at Van Volxem can find shriveled berries for our first nobly sweet wines in some time.
If we were to find any fault [Problem] with the 2009 vintage from our perspective - abstracting from the low yields - then it would be too high a ripeness and [must weight] numbers of fruit destined for our generic “Schiefer” and “Saar” Riesling [bottlings], which seldom dipped below 89 degrees [Oechsle]. The resulting wines will thus be fuller than those of 2008, which however really shouldn’t present any great problem [!].
I hope my situation report won’t be misunderstood as brazen [blöde] promotion for Van Volxem. Rather, it’s simply a very personal expression of great excitement!!! I am rock-solidly sure [felsenfest sicher I know we don’t have that expression in English, but perhaps we, not just German steep slate slope vintners and mountain climbers should!] that this in all likelihood spectacularly good vintage will - particularly in the cool side valleys of the Mosel (inter alia Ruwer and Saar) - have afforded less well-known talents the opportunity to stand out in future years in blind tastings of 2009s. All really industrious vintners who above all know how to achieve their quality through skilled craftsmanship in their vineyards will certainly have been rewarded for their efforts in 2009!
Cross your fingers that the weather remains generally dry in the next [couple of] weeks, so that we can harvest well into November and thus in future years talk about a great ‘Saar Vintage,’ as my dear friend Nik Weis of Leiwen’s St. Urbans-Hof is already doing. "
[By the way, my notes on 2007 Rieslings and some recent developments on the Saar - including some of the less well-known talents of which Niewodniczanski wrote will appear - hopefully in the next 8 or 10 days - as part of a separate on-line report. The Saar is indeed “a happenin’ place.”]
