Mosel Riesling 2016 Part 1: From Extremes, Equilibrium

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | JANUARY 3, 2018 

From Wehlen to Winningen

The meteorological vicissitudes that have plagued German Riesling vintages over the last two decades have been so relentless that readers are liable to become inured and fail to appreciate the challenges growers have faced. Those challenges are also easy to overlook considering that when all is said and done, with only three or four exceptions, top-notch growers have had no problem getting their Riesling to fully ripen since 1987. Two thousand sixteen not only perpetuates the streak of vintages that rewarded growers with ripe fruit, it also delivered weather conditions that were extreme by absolutely any standard. And yet, the resulting Rieslings are anything but extreme, either statistically or organoleptically. In fact, if one were seeking a Latin motto for the 2016 vintage in Riesling Germany, it might be “ex extremis aequilibrium.”

Thanks to talented growers like native Markus Hüls, Martin Müllen and Daniel Vollenweider, the vineyards of Kröv – here the Steffensberg – are among many downstream from Erden to once again demonstrate why they were so highly-rated during the late 19th century heyday of Mosel Riesling

A Drama in Three Acts

The vintage unfolded in three dramatically contrasting acts. The first of these featured the wettest, most unrelentingly dreary – and consequently most worrisome – late spring and early summer that any grower could recall, one in which peronospora (downy mildew) ran rampant up and down the Mosel. Even with more frequent than usual helicopter sprayings in most sectors and with growers applying treatments (whether organic or not) on an almost continuous basis – often on foot, since many top Mosel vineyards are too steep for tractors – the rain kept washing them away. Many estates could not keep up, or reach their vines in time, and suffered severe crop losses, especially since conditions did not improve during a spun-out late June flowering. (With peronospora, “in time” can be measured in hours: a part needed to repair the Zillikens’ tractor was one day late in arriving and it cost them half of their crop.) “It can be depressing,” reported biodynamic pioneer Clemens Busch with obvious understatement, “when you work so hard while watching yields drop in front of your eyes.”