2020 Riesling Schloss Fürstenberg trocken

In 2020, even Müller-Thurgau did not get picked chez Ratzenberger until September 21, and the start in 2019 was no earlier, with both harvests of Riesling coming in largely during the first half of October. “In fact,” noted Jochen Ratzenberger senior, “the Burgundian varieties got picked unusually late in 2020,” out of conviction that they needed time to achieve properly ripe flavors. With Riesling on the top sites, he reported must weights in 2020 having scarcely increased in the interval between a first pass utilized for generic estate Riesling and later pickings for vineyard-designated bottlings including the estate’s two Grosse Gewächse. As usual for this estate, acid levels were unproblematic and indeed high by the prevailing standards of either vintage. Must weights were marginally higher in 2019 but, also as usual at this address, it was possible even then to insure alcoholic moderation – to say nothing of generating some remarkable vinous personalities that defied my expectations of the vintage. “The 2020s were unusually slow in fermenting,” said Ratzenberger, attributing this to the effects of heat and drought on vineyard yeasts, “and in some instances we utilized an addition from one ongoing ferment to encourage another that was sluggish. But generally speaking,” he added, “if you intend to rely on the yeasts from your vineyards, then there will be instances where Trockenheit isn’t achievable and then you have feinherb.”

In contrast with 2019, no outright sweet wines were produced in 2020. My account below omits the generic bottlings of vintage 2019 because I did not taste those. (For considerable background on this exemplary estate – including its unusual regimen of late release and its substantial recent increase in size upon acquiring and formidably redeveloping the Schloss Fürstenberg vineyard – consult especially the introductions to my reports on its 2014s, 2015s and 2017s.)