Wait a few months. I have some coming in the fall.
I’ve worked as both a salesman of German (among other) wines in America before studying viniculture/viticulture and becoming a Winzer (Vigneron) here in Germany. There is a lot of disconnect between the ideals of the two wine-cultures as they pertain to German Riesling (and German wines in general), but I think that the gap is narrowing. For the most part, Americans (during my tenure) have primarily associated German Riesling with the Mosel, or if you are from my father’s generation, the Rheingau as well. On these discussion boards this is no new theme, and I don’t want to re-hash it all right now, but for the most part, for the majority of Americans: Riesling = sweet.
German winemakers recognize this, but most of them have difficulty understanding it. Those of us who produce wine for a living here (myself included) know that it is far more difficult to produce a great dry Riesling than it is to produce sweet Riesling. I will argue to my death that dry wines express terroir better than sweet wines, and that residual sugar very effectively covers both the influence of terroir and also defects (rot, oxidation, VA, geranium). In addition, sweeter wines (especially those made from grapes highly infected with botrytis) require far more intervention through technical means (extensive filtering and active charcoal additions at the least, both of which strip aromas away as well) and much higher doses of SO2.
Note: I’m not advocating Riesling with zero g/L residual sugar, but am using the term ‘Dry’ (Trocken) as it pertains to German wine law (total acidity + 2 g/L RS max. 9). I think that these borders sometimes cause confusion about Trocken as it is understood in Germany and in the EU and I haven’t until now even though about clarifying that. I am a huge fan of spontan-fermentations which don’t always go dry (though usually do in time, which can require MUCH later bottling), but am not against adding cultured yeast as long as they are neutral in their aroma-building to achieve somewhat lower RS at some point if needed. Today, adding Süssreserve and temp-dropping to achieve or keep sweetness is pretty much frowned upon by most of Germany’s winemakers –at least for top-quality wines. We could nit-pick here and there, but in general this holds pretty true -especially from the newest generation.
Silvaner is coming back. That is not always apparent from planting data, but it is worthwhile to look at the escalating prices of Silvaner wines (particularly from Franken, but also from the Rheinhessen and the Pfalz to some degree.) I took a tour of Franken last month (as I do every year) and was surprised by how many wineries are leaning on innovative (concrete eggs –Franken must have more than any other Weinbaugebiet per capita) and traditional (spontan-ferments) measures to stand out qualitatively. Good to see as this variety is so much better than it is generally perceived to be. Germany is on board, we shall see about the US. Also to note is that we sell a large portion of our Silvaner to Scandinavia at a very high price (as far as Silvaner goes.)
Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc) is far better respected than Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris). Baden and the Hessische-Bergstraße being the exceptions. Very dry, pure, taut, mineral, and expressive Weißburgunder is produced by many, many wineries and it isn’t uncommon for these wines to sell out first (especially considering the wonderful pairing with the fish and seafood found in the North and East seas that are found in northern Germany –some of our biggest markets.) Terroir wines that put the texture and mineral before the fruit are what the best Weißburgunder are made of and the abundance of limestone in the Südpfalz really plays to the style. Pinot Blanc is set to make a big splash if the right people get behind it.
Leaning heavily on Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) is in the future of many German wine regions. It is already statistically tied with Müller-Thurgau as the second most planted variety after Riesling (much of that coming from Baden and the Pfalz). Clones, site-selection, and barrel-regimes are the big issues that make or break Pinot Noir in Germany right now. Some wineries get it, some don’t. Pinot is easily the biggest discussion-generator at every conference and forum as of late. You will hear more about these wines.
Sauvignon Blanc is important for the time-being, but it could just as easily burn-out as a fad. The vine isn’t as adapted to Germany’s climate as Riesling (SB is actually quite tender in frost and weak in wind -very much the diva.) Personally, I don’t really care. I had a pretty good von Winning SB II from 2012 last week, but I can do without.
Keep in mind that I spend about 80 hours a week working with and talking about wine here. All of my friends are winemakers or somehow involved with the industry. Normal people might have a different take.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill,
I agree with everything you said. I have been behind the dry wines of Germany since my first trip in 2006 when I visited and tasted at many of the top dry estates on a Rudi Wiest wine tour. Dry Schuerebe is hard to come out balanced I find, but when it does it is fascinating. Weltner, Pfeffingen and Wagner-Stempel to name a few. Weissburgunder and Silvaner with qualitative wine-making and vineyard work behind them would be great for German exports and people like me will look for that to sell in addition to Riesling dry, semi-dry and sweet.I hope we can meet up on my trip to Germany in August.
Lyle, I’d love to meet you. Unfortunately, it isn’t likely to be in Germany (at least not in August) as we’re moving to the Willamette Valley at the end of the month. I wish you luck though in your new business –especially because I’m going to need some German wine out there.
Cheers,
Bill
Christian, I should have replied earlier but didn’t have the time to do so. As David already pointed out, your comment is a little pejorative. More important, some of the wines (depending on the vintage) from Van Volxem and Heymann-Löwenstein are below 9 grams of sugar per liter and would technically qualify as GG. They, however, prefer to avoid this category, as they don’t want to be forced to have wines under this residual-sugar limit.
Hi Lars,
I read on a merchant’s website recently that Heymann-Löwenstein will label the 2012 Uhlen Roth Lay as a Großes Gewächs for the first time. Apparently, there’s now a Uhlen Roth Lay GG (without Botrytis, < 9 g/l rs) and a Uhlen Roth Lay “R” (with Botrytis, > 9 g/l). However, I don’t know if this will be the same in other vintages.
Bill,
Too bad. What do you have going on in Oregon? Thanks for the kind words. I’ve got a bunch of cool German stuff up my sleeve.
Steven, I didn’t know that Reinhard Löwenstein would decide to finally label one of his top-designated dry Rieslings as GG – i.e., one that is under 9 grams of sugar per liter. On the other hand, he’s one of the big backers of the VDP classification model à la Burgundy.