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Prinz

In an attempt to meet the increasing challenges of warm growing seasons and accelerated accumulation of grape sugar, Fred Prinz is adapting his viticultural regimen. Canopy management and leaf-pulling reflect an interest in preserving shade as well as older foliage (“young leaves produce more sugar,” explains Prinz), while the fruit zone is gradually being raised to enhance air circulation. “And any clones I’ve planted in recent years have all been exceedingly loose-clustered and shy-bearing,” not to mention getting rigorously pruned, he notes, adding: “it makes no sense to have crop that you’re just going to end up dropping in August as part of a green harvest, because then the plant’s energy just gets redirected to the remaining clusters.” Some of Prinz’s parcels suffered severe losses to peronospora, but on the whole his 2016 crop ended-up close to average-sized. Picking centered on the first half of October, a decision that was in part another reflection of Prinz’s desire to pick at relatively modest must weights. Prinz gave his young 2016s longer lees contact than he has some other recent vintages, believing that this would enhance buoyancy, freshness, animation and generally speaking elegance. In my experience, this is a wise approach, even though many growers believe quite the opposite about extended lees contact.

At the time of my August, 2017 tasting, Prinz was not ready to show me his two vintage 2016 Grosse Gewächse and samples of these unfortunately did not catch up with me later in the year, which I especially regret given how impressively his other dry 2016s showed. Incidentally, he is among the increasing number of growers who are considering holding-back at least one Grosse Gewächs for a later release than has become the VDP norm of late August or early September. With that in mind, hopefully I can persuade him to open a bottle or two of those 2016s when I revisit in 2018. I was unfortunately also unable to taste the 2016 edition of Prinz’s Kabinett Goldkapsel from the original Jungfer, a wine which in connection with the VDP Rheingau’s revised calendar was only auctioned in March, 2018, right about when Prinz is due to have planted a new section of that Ur-Jungfer 2018 with a range of promising Riesling clones. (For a great deal of background on this estate, consult the introduction to my coverage of its 2015s.)

From Rheingau and Mittelrhein Riesling 2016: Stress Test (Jul 2018) by David Schildknecht

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2016 Roter Riesling trocken

Color: White

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