2015 Rhine Riesling: No Pfalz Modesty

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT I AUGUST 3, 2017

As I noted in my general comments on vintage 2015 at the beginning of my initial vintage report on Rieslings of the Saar and Ruwer, the Rhine growing regions really experienced two vintages: one for those who harvested most of their fruit in September, and another for those who, like their colleagues on the Mosel, didn’t even get going seriously before early October and weren’t finished before the end of that month. Pfalz vintners were overwhelmingly in the former group, although those in the South (the so-called Südliche Weinstrasse) picked later, as usual, than did those in the Mittelhaardt.

The efforts of veteran growers like Rebholz, Wehrheim, Minges and Messmer and newcomers like Volker Gies have brought the Southern Pfalz (a.k.a. Südliche Weinstrasse) and sites like the Birkweiler Kastanienbusch a notoriety rivaling that of the Mittelhaardt

Another Strong Vintage

The fact that many a Pfalz collection is not notably superior to its much later-harvested 2014 counterpart should by no means be taken as a sign of weakness. Those 2014s, as my extended report on that vintage explains, are very fine. It is unfortunate that their virtues went largely unrecognized early on and were then overshadowed by a bandwagon effect on behalf of 2015. Without question, the aggregate rate of Riesling success in 2014 and 2015 is highest in the Pfalz and Nahe.