Germany 2018: The Nahe – Leading by a Nose

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | JUNE 04, 2020

There is a lot to like from 2018 in Germany: both multiple attractive features and a lot of wines to exemplify them. And then there are the exceptions, including the vintage’s genuinely exciting Rieslings, of which, yet again, many are found on the Nahe. 

“The heat and drought of 2018 had us breaking out in a sweat, both literally and figuratively,” wrote Rheingauer Andreas Spreitzer in introducing his report on the vintage. “We were feverish out of concern for our grapes, in anticipation of much too low acidity and too high alcohol. Luckily that anticipation went unfulfilled.” His concerns were shared by German Riesling growers across the board, along with worried expectations of a small crop that, to say the least, also failed to transpire. But the factors to which Spreitzer attributed his luck – “the combination of a high percentage of old vines with deep roots, and soils with good water retention” – are at most just two among numerous contributors to vintage 2018 success.

The steep, secluded vineyards farmed by Hildegard von Bingen's 12th century Ruppertsberg Abbey are undergoing an exciting revival at the hands of Kruger-Rumpf.

A Well-Watered Drought Year

The winter of 2017–18 – from November 2017 on, really, but especially January 2018 – was unseasonably warm and rain-rich. That wetness was to prove an enormous blessing in view of what followed, because even in traditionally dry sites, enough water accumulated deep down to last most vines through the growing season. Fortunately, too, February brought a hard cold snap to Germany’s Riesling growing regions, killing off potential vine pests, forestalling premature, frost-susceptible budding, and offering at least a belated invitation for the vines to go dormant. A rude awakening was not long in coming. April smashed average temperature records throughout western Germany, bringing 80-degree (Fahrenheit) days to many sectors. “Nothing like this had ever been experienced,” Pfälzer Jan Eymael stated flatly. As a result, just as in so many recent years, flowering was extremely early by long-term standards – and extremely rapid, too. Almost unremittingly balmy spring and early summer weather, punctuated in some sectors by a brief post-flowering stretch of heavy rain, meant that treatments against fungal afflictions of any sort could be minimized, and an absence of fungicides with their retardant influence further accelerated grape maturation.

One conspicuous vintage 2018 phenomenon is most easily expressed anthropomorphically, but reflects sound science: Vines compensate for growing seasons in which their yield is small by setting a potentially large crop the year following. And any doubts as to whether a huge potential crop would follow the penury of 2017 were removed once growers had gotten through the successful flowering of 2018. “Two thousand eighteen is what was traditionally known as a Mastjahr” – a “year of plenty” – explained veteran Helmut Dönnhoff, “one in which there was an overabundance of everything, and as a result there weren’t any invasions of birds or incursions of deer or wild boar into the vineyards, because they already had all of the ‘natural’ food they could want from the woods and meadows. There were just tons of acorns falling from every oak tree, so many that the squirrels couldn’t even get their footing underneath, and portions of the roadbed where the tractors passed repeatedly became covered in acorn flour. The excess of edible fruits was unbelievable. I think it was a reaction to the frost of 2017. Nature was saying, ‘We need children to survive!’”

High potential yields in what turned out to be a dry, hot summer (albeit without the huge heat spikes that would characterize 2019): It certainly sounds like a recipe for vine stress. Some parts of Riesling Germany – though local variations were considerable – saw virtually no rain for eight or more weeks running from late June. Low water levels brought barge traffic and in some places even ferry traffic on the Rhine to a standstill. Young vines or those in especially rocky, thin-soiled places could be seen yellowing and drooping. But these were the exceptions, and as Dönnhoff’s characterization suggests, the plant world was well enough supplied thanks to an accumulation of water during the winter and spring. “I was really worried,” relayed Johannes Leitz, “given past experience as well as everything that theory tells you about a vintage with such heat and drought. Every time I drove by [my vineyards] I kept expecting to see the foliage start yellowing... but it stayed green.” Karsten Peter made a similar observation, but added, “year of plenty” notwithstanding, that “by the very end of the summer, grapevines were practically the only foliage that was still green along our stretch of the Nahe.”