2015 Pinot Noir Maximin Grünhäuser

Carl von Schubert’s vineyards were spared the peronospora that afflicted so much of the Greater Mosel in 2016, and ended up bringing in a healthy and relatively large crop, under the almost leisurely conditions that are typical of this vintage. Even picking of the Pinots did not start until the end of September, and while Riesling harvest began October 10, it didn’t finish until early November (with frozen grapes picked November 30). There was no problem with acidity here: levels in the finished wines are analytically among the highest I encountered from the vintage (often approaching 10 grams), but entirely positive in effect. I had hoped that the relatively modest must weights characteristic of 2016 generally might be used as an opportunity to offer at least one or two genuinely lightweight bottlings reminiscent of trocken and halbtrocken Grünhaus bottlings of the early 1990s and before. But as I have mentioned in past assessments of this estate’s recent evolution, it’s possible that such wines are simply no longer in the cards climatically from these sites; and, even if they are, most of von Schubert’s Riesling-drinking countrymen (who still represent his largest market) are looking for more body and weight. That said, the four top dry-tasting bottlings – i.e., the two Grosse Gewächse and two “Superior” offerings – weigh in modestly between 11.25% and 12% in alcohol. As for the residually sweet Kabinetts and Spätlesen in the present collection – picked largely in late October – like their vintage 2015 counterparts, they approach the stellar quality that characterized this estate prior to the late 1990s. What’s more, the sweetness of those Kabinetts – despite their having finished with only 7.5% alcohol – is not the least bit extraneous.

In my introduction to coverage of the von Schubert 2015s, I offered an extensive account of changes in labeling and bottling attendant on the estate’s VDP membership. One significant change did not “stick.” From vintage 2015 there was a legally dry Riesling labeled “Herrenberg” – but not labeled trocken , which enabled it in theory to avoid VDP strictures on any legally dry vineyard-designated “competition” to a Grosses Gewächs from the same site. This year, that wine is gone, and the blend that was formerly known simply as Maximin Grünhaus Riesling has added the name “Monopol.” (There was a 2015 from purchased fruit nicknamed “Maxim” whose 2016 counterpart is “Maximin” but which I did not taste.) Apropos of label changes, I should mention for any who have not already seen it that the von Schubert label design, while retaining its traditional themes, including the familiar 19th-century depiction of the Grünhaus itself, has been rather startlingly “modernized” under the influence of young Maximin von Schubert, who is now directing things here alongside his father. (For further background on this estate, consult my introductions to coverage of its 2014 and 2015 collections, the latter replete with an account of stylistic evolution here over the past two decades.)

Carl von Schubert and his cellarmaster Stefan Kraml began harvesting one week into October 2015. The picking crew had been mustered 10 days earlier, but it was decided to give the grapes more time to shake off the whiplash of summer heat and drought followed by September rain, and von Schubert reported that must weights conveniently plateaued, allowing flavors to catch up. As my notes reveal, I found the residually sweet portion of this year’s collection the finest such group at this address in more than two decades, and decidedly superior to an assortment of ripe, well-crafted, site-typical but never quite exciting dry Rieslings. Quality at this fabled estate has been on a gradual rebound throughout the new millennium. One thing I still miss that was common here in the 1980s and early ‘90s is trocken or halbtrocken Rieslings that combine alcoholic levity with utmost transparency to herbal and mineral nuances and the spine to evolve fascinatingly for more than a decade. The dry Grünhaus 2015s come a little closer to that ideal than their 2014 counterparts did. Whether these great vineyards are still capable of rendering under current climatic conditions the sort of Rieslings I just mentioned is an open question. And perhaps it’s also questionable whether this is a type of wine that any significant share of today’s Riesling-drinking population craves. Among the welcome features of this year’s impressive non-dry wines is residual sugar so well judged that sweetness is the last thing on your mind while savoring them. (There were once again this vintage off-dry bottlings labeled “Superior,” but Carl von Schubert inexplicably neglected to present them to me and I became aware of their existence too late to remedy my oversight.)

With the January 2016 assumption (or, more specifically, the return) of this famous estate into the ranks of the VDP, certain changes were required to bring its labeling practices into accord with that organization’s strictures. It was obvious that von Schubert would begin offering his top dry-tasting wine from each of this estate’s renowned Einzellagen, Abtsberg and Herrenberg, as a legally trocken Grosses Gewächs. (In recent years, the top trocken bottlings had been distinguished by the designations “Alte Reben.”) In order to promote the preeminent stature of the Grosses Gewächs category within the VDP, that organization requires its members to abstain from bottling any trocken wines with the same vineyard designation as that of their Grosses Gewächs. (The organization could not care less how many different residually sweet Kabinetts, Spätlesen or Auslesen bear the same site designation in any given vintage.) This requirement poses a marketing challenge for estates that are “unlucky” enough to be vested almost entirely in “great” sites, especially if the Einzellagen in question are large and the share of dry wine high. The Abtsberg and Herrenberg make up more than 96 percent of Maximin Grünhaus acreage (the rest consisting of the tiny Bruderberg) and in recent years more than half of this estate’s production has been legally trocken. The Grünhaus “solution” to this marketing conundrum is certainly original (though don’t ask me how it squares with VDP intentions). Henceforth wines labeled simply “Abtsberg” or “Herrenberg” will not carry the designation trocken on their labels even though they fit the relevant analytic parameters. Von Schubert may now be in a position to advocate this approach at other estates, because less than eight months after joining the VDP-Mosel, he was elected its chairman. As a universally admired and legally trained estate owner previously uninvolved in VDP politics, he seems ideally placed to heal the wounds of an unpleasant mid-2016 row over potential invitees that saw the resignation of then-chairman Egon Müller and his vice-chair Nik Weis.