Joel Payne on Germany 2007

In 2006 and 2005, quality was uneven from region to region and estate to estate due to the vagaries of nature. In 2007, the patchiness was generally the fault of the producer. After suffering hail, rains during harvest and rot, most estates were primarily interested in cellaring a large and healthy crop, and many harvested far too early out of undue fear. As the grapes already had sufficient sugars in early September, but not the phenolic ripeness necessary to make fine wine, the crush began too hastily. The result in most of the “September wines,” as Hansjörg Rebholz calls them, was a thread of slightly bitter acidity that ran through so many of my tastings.

Further, even among the wines harvested in October and November, it was not truly a year for botrytized rieslings. As most Germans drink primarily dry wines today anyway, this was not a problem for the domestic market. Quite the contrary, the dry rieslings from the Pfalz were among the highlights of the vintage. On the other hand, those readers looking for Germany’s inimitable ausleses, beerenausleses or even richer wines will find limited choice in these categories—not in quality but in volume. While 2006 will be remembered for its wealth of noble late-harvest rieslings but not much else, such wines were even then only a fraction of the total production. In 2007 there were even fewer of them.

Dr. Manfred Prüm of Joh. Jos. Prüm in Wehlen describes 2007 as a cross between 2005 and 2004. “The wines have the flesh of the 2005s and the bracing acidity of the 2004s,” he explained. I still prefer the best 2004s for their purity, but 2007 certainly marks a progression in German viticulture. While the finest 2004s may be marginally superior to the 2007s, I have seldom tasted such a wide range of excellent wines as in 2007. It is true that many of them are dry, especially in Rheinhessen and the Pfalz, but in general that is where the market is moving. Sure, dry German riesling is not yet what Americans are drinking, but demand is beginning to grow in that direction in the U.S. as well.

In a nutshell, 2007 was a spätlese vintage. The ausleses were often hardly better, if at all, than the spätleses from the same vineyard. Moreover, those producers trying to shoot beyond the mark often ended up falling short. While the Saar and Ruwer were only marginally convincing, the middle stretches of the Mosel fared much better, with Fritz Haag and Joh. Jos. Prüm having the best overall collections, followed closely by Heymann-Löwenstein (in his own personal style), Schloss Lieser and Willi Schaefer.

However, it was again the Nahe that probably had some of the finest overall results. That is certainly the case for the top five estates, among which I now include Dr. Crusius. All five had an excellent vintage, but it is true that the region does not have much depth beyond that. The Rheingau, on the other hand, has a far larger number of good, if not always stunning, producers, many of which did quite well this year. But there was a slight lack of purity in many of the ostensibly great rieslings, probably due to problems with rot. Interestingly, the most compelling wines came not from Leitz, Spreitzer or Weil this year, but from Schloss Johannisberg and Schloss Schönborn. The other big surprises were Matthias Müller on the Mittelrhein and Wagner-Stempel in Rheinhessen, both of which made excellent wines in ’07 and must now be viewed as first-string estates.