2014 Mosel: A Hard But Often Rewarding Harvest

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | OCTOBER 6, 2016

Part One: Longuich to Lieser 

The early budding and flowering of what looked destined to be an unusually large crop had growers hugely enthusiastic about 2014 up until August. A wet, cool June had set things back a bit but was hardly problematic. Rain in August, however, with temperatures remaining warm, quickly became a serious concern. Conditions were already ripe for fungal and insect pests since there had been scarcely any winter to kill off spores or larvae. When warm weather and periodic, at-times heavy, rains continued throughout September into early October, the stage was set for a battle against wasps, fruit flies and rot. The Mosel was especially rained on. Its Riesling’s slightly later ripening vis-à-vis other regions was not an advantage given that some of the heaviest rains fell in late September and early October. The result was that many growers had to choose between picking at marginal ripeness or risk wholesale taint of acescence (emergence of acetic acid) and rot.

Julian Haart, responsible for one of the most exciting Mosel collections of the 2014 vintage, has lovingly and painstakingly restored these old vines in the Schubertslay, a vineyard within today’s Piesporter Goldtröpfchen.

Yet for all of this adversity, more than a few outstanding wines were rendered. In the words of Andreas Adam, one of the most successful Mosel growers in 2014, but echoed by many others: “I’m thrilled with how this vintage turned out; I just don’t ever want to have to relive it!” In part, success came because conditions varied greatly from one community to another, as this portion of my report vividly demonstrates. Some sensational wines emerged from Piesport and Dhron, while one bend of the Mosel and fewer than ten miles downstream, Brauneberger was hit by conditions as difficult as any experienced in Riesling Germany this year.

In part, too, success came because rain, rot and fruit flies could not defeat that archetypical German virtue Fleiss—sheer diligence even when the going gets tough. And it was easy to lose heart as a grower not to mention as a picker, struggling to determine whether the cluster in front of you harbors hidden rot, and, if your job is to be well done, having to turn each bunch in your hand looking for rot and smelling it lest it harbor acetic berries. “I’ll never forget catching my first glimpse of the 2014 Mosel harvest,” related Philipp Wittmann, who was headed to help his wife Eva finish the harvest after his crop in Rheinhessen was safely fermenting. “As I descended into the valley under dark skies I was shocked at what looked like a war zone full of desperate pickers."