2014 Riesling Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Spätlese

After 26 years at the helm of his family's celebrated Ruwer estate, proprietor Christoph Tyrell in late 2012 passed title to the Karthäuserhof to his first cousin Albert Behler, and last year brought a bevy of personnel changes on which I'll report further in my coverage of vintage 2015. These include the departure of cellarmaster and managing director Christian Vogt, who was responsible for the 2014 collection.

Having a personal predilection for analytically dry and relatively full-bodied Rieslings--a category that his vineyards, thanks to climate change, were becoming capable of achieving with regularity–Christoph Tyrell was ideally suited to champion the notion of Grosse Gewächse, even though the first official Karthäuserhof Riesling of that category was only from vintage 2009. Other trocken Rieslings from the estate are labeled "Karthäuserhof," just not "Karthäuserhofberg," thus satisfying the VDP stipulation that only one legally dry Riesling each year be permitted to bear the name of a "great vineyard.” The longstanding tradition of bottling multiple residually sweet wines even from a given Prädikat continued throughout Tyrell's tenure, and in some recent vintages there have been as many as half a dozen Auslesen alone. But the diversity of bottlings most years should not mislead: three trocken Rieslings constitute some three-quarters of the estate's production.

Due to rot and insect pressure, picking of Riesling began here in 2014 on September 29 and was finished just over three weeks later. That relatively early harvest--and perhaps also some degree of rain dilution--is reflected in must weights that are low by recent standards, though many tasters will share my delight with several legally dry Rieslings that stimulate and refresh at 11% or less alcohol.