Prefer the old site?Launch →

Schäfer-Fröhlich

This estate ended-up with a crop scarcely diminished by the April, 2017 frost, thanks largely to its home village of Bockenau having been spared. Apropos yields, “I’ve had twenty-five years to experiment,” says Tim Fröhlich, “and the main thing I’ve learned is to largely leave things up to Nature. She knows what she can ripen in any given soil and season and will let you know. This year, for example, we got forty hectoliters per hectare for Grosses Gewächs – in less stony portions even fifty. And if we’d had significantly less, it would have pushed up the date when we had to pick.” And that, he goes on to suggest, would have been very unfortunate. As has been mentioned often in my reports, Fröhlich (like Klaus Peter Keller) is among the most vocal advocates of the view that chilly weather is needed to convey the ultimate “finesse, freshness and complexity” to Riesling grapes. And what you just read in quotes is Fröhlich’s description of how things turned out thanks to prevailing temperatures in early autumn of 2017. “We always try to wait for the weather to turn chilly,” he explains, “but this year we were really very lucky that it happened when it did, and that our berries were still gold-green and healthy. Had conditions continued warm and humid for another week, it probably would have been too late to have brought in a complete crop of healthy grapes, not to mention too late to have achieved anything like the quality that we did. If you didn’t work scrupulously in your vineyards all season,” he added, “then you ended-up in 2017 with unwelcome botrytis.”

“If you’d asked me at the beginning of the 2017 harvest how soon we’d be finished,” says Fröhlich, “I’d have said ‘two weeks, provided we can gather-in all the grapes that quickly.’” But with the arrival of sustained cool weather, his strategy relaxed. By the end of the first week in October, Fröhlich reports, the vine foliage yellowed, halting any further assimilation. And given the cool, stable subsequent weather, must weights moved scarcely at all. In the end, all of his Grosse Gewächse finished within a remarkably narrow window of 12.5-12.7% alcohol. But aromas and flavors, says Fröhlich, improved substantially in the second and third weeks of October. I was astonished to see photographic evidence that the last of many lots of picture-perfect, healthy grapes to arrive at the Schäfer-Fröhlich press house, on October 20, was not Riesling but Pinot Blanc! For that to happen, with one of the most botrytis-sensitive grapes at German wine growers’ disposal, a combination of cooperative weather and scrupulous management of one’s soil and vines is needed. Workspace has until now been crammed beneath the family’s domicile, so a new vinification facility will be ready in time for the 2019 Schäfer-Fröhlich harvest. This will permit more rapid processing of fruit if need be, but also more leisurely pressing if called for. Moreover, processing and upbringing of Pinot Noir will be able to take place in a separate space.

I never tire of relating the following amazing and telling fact: Bockenau’s rise to viticultural prominence isn’t a case of having been forgotten as a wine village. It was scarcely on anyone’s radar screen to begin with. At the end of the 18th century Bockenau had fewer than 20 acres of vines. Under Prussian administration, its still modest vine acreage was taxed at the next-to-lowest of six rates; and although its vineyards greatly expanded in the early 20th century, they go virtually unmentioned in German trade literature until in the early 21st century with (guess what!) the “discovery” of Schäfer-Fröhlich’s wines. Of course, the nowadays sensation quality at this address is a function among other things of this family’s fanaticism and teamwork. But you may be sure that the Fröhlichs are out to achieve the best possible results from each and every site in which they have holdings. So when their Grosses Gewächs from the Felseneck (with that from Bockenau’s Stromberg seldom far behind) consistently edges-out their superb bottlings from four of the Nahe’s historically most celebrated sites (two in Monzingen, two in Schlossböckelheim), one can confidently state that Bockenau terroir is Grand Cru quality, even though that fact escaped notice until two decades ago! Readers will perceive that I keep going farther out on a limb in my prognostications of age-worthiness for Schäfer-Fröhlich Grosse Gewächse; but so far, they haven’t embarrassed me. (For much more about this stellar estate, consult the introductions to my accounts focused on its wines from vintages 2014, 2015 and 2016.)

From Nahe Riesling 2017: Chills and Thrills (Apr 2019) by David Schildknecht

Reviews

Wines

Sort by default

2013 Spätburgunder Bockenauer trocken

Color: Red

Subscriber Access Only

Schäfer-Fröhlich

2013 Spätburgunder Bockenauer trocken

2017 Blanc de Noir trocken

2017 Fröhlich trocken

2017 Weissburgunder trocken

2017 Weissburgunder trocken S

2017 Weissburgunder trocken R

2017 Grauburgunder trocken S

2017 Riesling trocken

2017 Riesling Bockenauer trocken Vulkangestein

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Schiefergestein trocken

2017 Riesling Schlossböckelheimer Kupfergrube Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Monzinger Halenberg Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Stromberg Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Grosses Gewächs

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Schiefergestein feinherb

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Kabinett

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Spätlese

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Spätlese Goldkapsel

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Auslese

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Auslese Goldkapsel

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Beerenauslese

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Beerenauslese Goldkapsel

2017 Riesling Bockenauer Felseneck Trockenbeerenauslese A.P. #32

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social