Saar & Ruwer: Beauties Despite a Bumpy 2016

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | MARCH 22, 2018

The Saar and Ruwer yielded a wealth of wines with improbable balance and finesse considering the meteorological extremes that characterized the 2016 growing season.

I described the turbulent course of vintage 2016 – with its three dramatic phases of record-setting springtime and early summer rain, scorching heat and drought through September, and a wide, chilly, rain-free harvest window – in detail in the introductions to my reports on the Middle Mosel. Conditions on the Saar and Ruwer followed the same pattern without notable regional idiosyncrasy. 

In the course of 2016’s “Act One,” few growers imagined that this vintage could end happily, and come July many were less worried about whether the eventual crop would ripen than about whether there would even be a crop. The combination of rain and mild temperatures led to almost unprecedented outbreaks of peronospora (downy mildew), which peaked inconveniently just as the vines were flowering, belatedly, at the end of June. The capriciousness of this scourge was emphasized again and again by experiences like those of Florian Lauer and Helmut Plunien (Weingut VOLS). In the Schonfels, where they have restored adjacent parcels whose steepness dictates that spraying take place by helicopter, Lauer rendered an exceptional 2016 from scarcely diminished yields while Plunien’s vines were so devastated by peronospora that he didn’t even attempt to harvest them. Lauer was the first to admit that losses to “pero” were more a matter of luck than skill or diligence. Some of the Zillikens’ tractor attachments were delayed by one or two days coming out of a repair shop and by the time spraying could resume, the stage was set for a crop loss of over 50%. Meanwhile, the Wagners, whose estate is similarly dominated by Saarburger Rausch, experienced nearly normal yields. 

Wiltinger Braune Kupp and Gottesfuss—which again in 2016 yielded exceptional Rieslings for Egon Müller (Le Gallais) and Roman Niewodniczanski (Van Volxem)—as seen from the Wiltinger Kupp (where von Othegraven and VOLS have important holdings). Wiltingen’s Scharzhofberg has been stealing the headlines ever since Napoleon ordered a tax classification of the Greater Mosel’s vineyards, while the trio of Wiltingen slopes that actually face the Saar has been underestimated.