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Baron zu Knyphausen

It was in the mid-1980s that I first met the exceptionally gracious Gerko zu Knyphausen (whose resemblance to his Friesian ancestor Wilhelm zu Knyphausen, the commander of Hessian troops who nearly kidnapped George Washington, is too striking not to note), and I soon began selling his wines and visiting annually. Knyphausen's share of the prestigious Marcobrunn, Siegelsberg and Wisselbrunnen vineyards is tiny, but his more numerous wines from Erbacher Hohenrain, Michelmark and Steinmorgen, as well as many relying on seemingly unpromising neighboring sectors of Kiedricher Sandgrub, were consistently admirable. Significant weaknesses were evident at this estate early in the new millennium, at least some of which could be attributed to the increasing challenges of fast-warming vineyards that lie very near the Rhine and are thus susceptible to botrytis and too-rapid accumulation of grape sugar, features that had by then begun to plague increasingly many Rheingau vintages. Knyphausen took on a 50 percent partner in 2010 to assist in managing his then roughly 60-acre estate and marketing its wines. Longtime vineyard and cellar manager Rainer Rüttiger remained at his post (and still does), and results in several vintages under the new arrangement were encouraging, with some streamlining and rearranging of a sprawling portfolio seemingly well thought out. For whatever reason, though, the new arrangement fell apart acrimoniously, and Knyphausen was stressfully occupied in 2015 with buying back his partner’s share, which ultimately entailed a more than 50 percent reduction in his estate’s acreage. Son Frederik has recently joined his father and Rüttiger, whose tasks include the sorrowful one of replacing many of their oldest vines, on which esca has been taking a steady toll.

“We started picking on September 30,” reported Knyphausen of 2015, “and finished on October 22.” Selected musts were deacidified, but even so, acid levels in the wines ended up at 8.5-9 grams. For a time after 2010, the estate’s Wisselbrunnen and Marcobrunn, rather than being subjected to bottling as Grosses (and before that Erstes) Gewächs, were being allowed to finish halbtrocken if nature willed it. That struck me as a wise approach, not least because the legally dry wines here so often finish above 13 percent in alcohol. Yet the 13 percent alcohol 2015 Wisselbrunnen Grosses Gewächs is not only impressive but also displays an uncanny sense of buoyancy. In fact, the entire 2015 Knyphausen collection is highly promising, nurturing my hope that Knyphausen will soon once again rank among the Rheingau’s most reliable sources of quality, a hope rendered more poignant by the fact that searches over the past two decades for Rieslings truly representative of Erbach’s celebrated vineyard potential have come up singularly short. If my crowded 2017 travel schedule and desire to check out other estates that I have not visited in a number of years (or ever) precludes including Knyphausen in my report focused on vintage 2016, rest assured that I shall endeavor to again taste at this estate sometime in 2018.

From 2015 Rheingau and Mittelrhein Riesling (Sep 2017) by David Schildknecht

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2015 Gemischter Satz trocken

Color: White

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