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Richard Böcking

After having worked alongside Simon Tröss – who acted as cellarmaster and vineyard manager from the onset of this Trarbach estate’s 2012 revival – Phillip Buchkremer has now stepped into the leading role here. As explained in the introduction to my account of that revival and of this estate’s 2014s, wines from its leading vineyards – Schlossberg, Ungsberg and Hühnerberg, along the narrow Kautenbach Valley above Trarbach – will spend close to a year in cask (which for now means mostly well-used barriques), and in consequence I was only able to sample and report on the 2015s on the occasion of my late July 2017 visit. But at that time, Buchkremer elected to let me compare the already assembled though not yet bottled 2016s. Late bottling and élevage in barrique invite malolactic transformation, which in fact took place with the 2015s and 2016s as it had with the 2014s. Buchkremer attributes the relatively low acid levels in his 2016 musts to the effects of such hot August and September weather, during which many of the estate’s vines experienced stress, which he suggests also accounts for modest must weights, the affected vines having for a time ceased photosynthesizing. The hot, dry summer of 2015 was less stressful, other than on the minority of young Böcking vines, another apparent confirmation of the theory that vines set themselves up metabolically to expect more of whatever spring has brought, which in 2015 was already extreme dryness but in 2016 was the prospect of endless rain. It’s too early to speak of any real track record for ageability, especially since the Böcking style is still evolving and the first two vintages under the present regime, 2012 and 2013, really served as a warm-up. My sense, though, is that both dry and off-dry wines here as presently constituted are apt to be best enjoyed within six or eight years. (For notes on this estate’s illustrious history and recent revival, consult the introduction to my notes on its 2014s.)

From Mosel Riesling 2016 Part 1: From Extremes, Equilibrium (Jan 2018) by David Schildknecht

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2016 Riesling

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