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Dr. Hermann

I had been remiss in having for several years not tasted any wines from this well-regarded estate run by Rudi Hermann and his affable son Christian, and was encouraged to visit by several of their winegrowing colleagues – in particular by Stefan Steinmetz, who was launching a joint venture (one on whose inaugural 2015 installment I will soon report). The Hermanns benefit from nearly 50 percent truly ancient, ungrafted, single-post-trained vines, just as does the Joh. Jos. Christoffel estate of which the core Hermann vineyards were part until Christian’s grandfather inherited them in 1967. The Hermanns’ holdings in Erden’s original Herzlay (now named on their labels) consists of five terraces abutting the Prälat that are accessible solely by monorail and were for that reason spared in the 1990s when the majority of Erdener Treppchen vine acreage was subjected to restructuring and replanting. In addition to their holdings in Erden’s and Ürzig’s celebrated sites, the Hermanns also farm vines in the Lösnicher Försterlay and underrated Kinheimer Hubertuslay, though for now the latter are only tapped for generic bottlings. This estate’s reputation has grown under Christian’s leadership thanks in no small part to his penchant for crafting nobly sweet elixirs including some T.B.A.s with eye-popping analyses. Most of his other wines are also residually sweet – especially in botrytis-rich 2014 and 2013, there having been no dry Hermann bottlings whatsoever from the latter vintage. Christian Hermann believes in spontaneous fermentation and says that in his very cold concrete cellar near the shoreline and isolated from the village of Erden proper, he has trouble getting wines to go legally trocken. Vinification here is almost entirely in stainless steel, although some fuder have recently been reintroduced to the cellar for several wines, including the dry-tasting bottling that, beginning with vintage 2015, will be jointly crafted with Stefan Steinmetz.

Picking here in 2014 began on October 5 with Kabinett and continued into the first week of November. “It was pure stress from beginning to end,” related Christian Hermann, “and, as such, a big contrast with 2011, 2012 or 2015. But my whole crew has 20 years of experience with botrytis” - meaning not just the rooting out of rot but also the capture of its noble manifestations.

From 2014 on the Mosel: Man Bats Last (Nov 2016) by David Schildknecht

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2014 Riesling feinherb

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