Rheingau and Mittelrhein 2018s: Mixed Riesling Results

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | APRIL 29, 2021

The saga of 2018’s radically precocious growing season has been thoroughly canvassed in my previous reports. Among interesting disparities in perception from one grower to the next there is a tendency by some to treat 2018 as unproblematic, especially in view of felicitous autumn weather and impeccably healthy, high-must-weight grapes. Other producers, instead, insist that the vintage was very challenging in regards to choosing the right moment to harvest any given parcel and optimize the aggregate of flavor, must-weight and acidity. So, while one group of German Riesling growers emphasized how relaxed harvest conditions were (for a change!), another insisted that concerned calculations and pinpoint precision were as important as ever. In a region where there are still so many large estates with geographically far-flung holdings and so much reliance on machine harvest as in today’s Rheingau, it’s not hard to imagine which viewpoint on 2018 was most widely adopted there.

Again in 2018, thanks to Wilhelm Weil and his team, Kiedrich's Gräfenberg and Turmberg turned in performances from dry wine to TBA that need not fear comparison with those of the Rheingau's late 19th- and early 20th-century heyday. 

Generalities and Regional Particularities

Another sharp divide among growers in 2018 was between those who not only commenced harvesting record-breakingly early (because nearly every estate did that) but finished quickly as well, and those who took lovely weather as an excuse to extend harvest well into October or in some instances even beyond. If you have followed my coverage, you will note a tendency to prefer those results that were achieved in September or in early October. Summer drought was especially extreme in the Mittelrhein and western Rheingau, making Riesling grapes prone to irregular flavor evolution and the eventual wines susceptible to, among other things, harsh phenolics and eventual premature aging. But large parts of the Rheingau were also among sectors of Riesling Germany that in mid-September finally received some rain, which had a beneficial balancing effect by rehydrating grapes and stimulating a further measure of metabolic activity.