2015 Rheingau and Mittelrhein Riesling: Excellence from Those Who Demand It

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT I SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 

There is less talent and ambition in the Rheingau and adjacent Mittelrhein than these regions deserve, but 2015 offered an outstanding opportunity for demanding growers to excel.

When I visited August Kesseler in 2016, he had this to say about the circumstances of my visit a year earlier: “What I was thinking when you visited me in the rain in mid-September [2015] was that there will be (a) not much wine and (b) it will be of poor quality.” He was only slightly more colorfully expressing an opinion held by many Rheingau growers in the face of an impending 2015 harvest. 

Grand cru under construction. Here’s what the wholesale face-lifting known as Flurbereinigung looks like in affected portions of the Kiedricher Gräfenberg

The summer’s heat and drought had been so extreme that an excessively high skin-to-juice ratio seemed assured. On the other hand, pumping rain water into those berries risked bursting and botrytization; and especially in heavier soils and riverside locations, the Rheingau has experienced a lot of recent problems with September rot. In the event, here as elsewhere in Riesling Germany, the mid-September rain was actually a potential boon, ushering in an extended period of clear, cool weather. But the extent to which Rheingau growers effectively utilized that opportunity varies considerably according to location and to how adroitly they had managed their vines. 

The Many and The Few

It’s no secret nowadays that negligent farming and mediocre wine are problems that in the Rheingau extend into what are ostensibly the ranks of top estates – or at least the ranks of still-famous properties whose qualitative reputations were earned in an era when labor costs, viticultural standards and harvest conditions were significantly different from those prevailing today. Many of these estates are spread over a wide range of villages and endowed with vineyards whose historic excellence was defined by their ability to maximize must weights and attract noble botrytis. In an era of increasingly early, warm harvests in which more than adequate must weights are virtually assured, what were once advantages can now represent difficulties. Picking in time to avoid either spoilage or too much grape sugar for balanced dry wines is a frequent challenge.

"The sleeping giant’ is what August Kesseler calls Lorch with its steep slate slopes, including the Schlossberg, from which he derived a superb 2015