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Hofgut Falkenstein

Erich and Johannes Weber began their 2020 harvest on September 13, a day earlier even than in 2019. Precautions were taken in the vineyard as well as the press house (for information about which consult what follows, as well as previous reports on this estate) to mitigate potential harm from extreme summer heat and precocious ripening. The tendency of the Webers’ mostly old vines to produce clusters with tiny berries was accentuated by the dry conditions in summer; nevertheless, very gentle and fractionized pressing was the order of the day, with musts, as usual, left to clarify themselves without any physical or chemical intervention. “I don’t care how prestigious your vineyards are,” remarked Erich Weber, “if the grapes and must aren’t treated with utmost delicacy, care and avoidance of mechanical intervention, you’re not going to get really expressive, clear wines; and in the future, that is going to become ever more evident. Recognizing and interpreting the stress signals from your vines,” he added, “is also going to become more important.” The usually generous, highly efficacious, ripe acids associated with this estate are on full display. There have been vintages at this address in which the standouts were equally or perhaps even more exciting, but I can’t think of another Hofgut Falkenstein collection in which the consistency of quality has been any more impressive than that of 2020.

Spring frost, imperfect flowering, summer heat and sunburn all took their toll in 2019 on Hofgut Falkenstein’s yields, which are already relatively low by design (most notably due to old vines, minimal dunging, and pruning to a single un-arched cane). But one thing that didn’t cut yields here the way it did at so many other Mosel and Saar addresses was having to select out rot-tinged fruit, because much of the Webers’ crop was harvested before rain intervened, and sparse clusters of firm-skinned berries, not to mention soils planted with strategically managed cover crops, resist attempts by botrytis to invade. Even with yet lower yields and marginally higher acidity in 2019 than in 2018, the Webers still practiced fractional pressing so as to enhance eventual animation, clarity and aromatic purity. One can scarcely argue with the results that I tasted! Thanks not just to commencing harvest in mid-September and thus largely avoiding significant effects from the subsequent rain, but also to the entire approach that the Webers take in managing their vines so as to keep must weights modest even at low yield (including late hedging and virtually no leaf removal), most 2019s were harvested in the 80s Oechsle, and there were no fewer than eight wines from the vintage that could be labeled “Kabinett,” capable of offering the sense of levity – whether in dry or residually sweet format – that is prized by the Webers and so many of their loyal customers.

The big news chez Weber in calendar year 2021 was the acquisition of two small, excellently situated parcels in Ockfener Bockstein, which will result in a single Kabinett from the 2021 vintage. But it should not be overlooked that 2020 saw the purchase from a retiring grower of two more prime parcels – adjacent to existing Hofgut Falkenstein holdings – in the Niedermenniger Herrenberg, as well as the inaugural vintage (reviewed below) of Riesling from the site Auf dem Hölzchen (a cadaster name newly registered by the Webers) in the Altenberg Einzellage.

From 2020, as usual, a few fuders were bottled exclusively for private customers. And Lars Carlberg, who, as the Webers’ sole full-time employee, markets their wines abroad as well as working in the vines and cellar, likes to point out that if they chose to, they could unquestionably render a delectable cuvée from younger vines in various parcels whose fruit instead gets sold off to a cooperative. This year’s harvest from the Oberemmeler Karlsberg, for instance, will not be found on the regular list. From that list, my vintage 2020 notes below are missing two wines that I was unable to taste: a Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett Feinherb A.P. #15 (from the parcels nicknamed Kleiner Herbert and Meyer Nepal) and a Krettnacher Euchariusberg Riesling Kabinett A.P. #5 (nickname Förster). From 2019, by contrast, I can only report below on a cross-section of wines that the Webers showed me alongside their 2020s, or that I was able to purchase or trade for stateside. Incidentally, most of the parcel nicknames by which Hofgut Falkenstein wines have been known internally, and which have also gained recognition among fans of the estate, are now being inscribed in tiny print on the labels, but for the sake of simplicity and consistency, I have elected to continue disambiguating otherwise eponymous wines via their more prominently displayed A.P. numbers. (For a great deal of historical and methodological background on this estate with its many highly distinctive practices, as well as on the Konzer Tälchen sector of the Saar in which all of its vineyards – save, now, for Bockstein! – are located, consult the introductions to my previous reports on their wines.)

From Saar Riesling 2019-2020: Selective Excellence (May 2022) by David Schildknecht

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2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett trocken A.P. #19

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Hofgut Falkenstein

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett trocken A.P. #19

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett trocken A.P. #1

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Sonnenberg Kabinett trocken

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Auf dem Hötzchen Kabinett trocken

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Altenberg Spätlese trocken

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Ober Schäfershaus Spätlese trocken

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb A.P. #4

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett feinherb A.P. #3

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb A.P. #11

2020 Riesling Niedermenniger Im Kleinschock Kabinett

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kabinett A.P. #12

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kabinett Alte Reben

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Spätlese A.P. #13

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Spätlese A.P. #14

2020 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese

2020 Weissburgunder Niedermenniger Herrenberg Spätlese trocken

2019 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett trocken A.P. #19

2019 Riesling Niedermenniger Sonnenberg Kabinett trocken

2019 Riesling Krettnacher Ober Schäfershaus Spätlese trocken

2019 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb A.P. #11

2019 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kabinett A.P. #12

2019 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kabinett Alte Reben

2019 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Spätlese A.P. #14

2019 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese

2019 Red Wine Niedermenniger Herrenberg trocken

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