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Stefan Müller

Stefan Müller emphasized the striking difference between effects of rain on the 2019s and on the 2020s. The former harvest demanded rigorous selection to cull botrytis, whereas virtually no sorting was necessary in 2020 thanks to the late-summer drought having inhibited fungal infections generally, including any early nests of botrytis, and to temperatures during harvest having, after a few very warm days, turned cool.

“Had it not been for the matter of drought,” Müller insists, “2020 would have been an extremely uncomplicated, simple year. We had this warm beginning to the growing season, with no late frost, and no water problems early on, so that the vines progressed really fast ... until near the end of July. And then it was ‘Stop!’” To be sure, in many places, the vines recovered sufficiently to achieve aromatic expressiveness – the finished results unequivocally demonstrate that – and considerable rain ended up falling, albeit precisely as most growers were commencing their harvest. “But the drought,” Müller concludes, “is what accounts for modest must weights and prominent acidity” from a vintage that, in terms of heat summation, might have been expected to give just the opposite result. Cool weather that set in after mid-September was another factor in keeping acid levels relatively high, and is also the reason why, despite the rain, botrytis could not get a toehold. “And that was also an effect of the hot dry late summer,” notes Müller, “namely little problem with pest pressure or fungal infections.” (For considerable background on this estate, consult the introductions to my reports on their 2017s and especially on their 2018s.)

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

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Stefan Müller

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