2016 Riesling Erdener Herrenberg Auslese Goldkapsel

Christian Hermann harvested from October 10 through November 7, 2016 (excepting November 30 and December 5 pickings of frozen grapes), and although he characterized the vintage as modest in overall ripeness, many of his individual bottlings reflect above-average must weights for 2016, even though noble botrytis was scarce. “We started with the Kabinetts,” he related, “so as to insure some low must weights. Then we picked for the drier wines, and then for Spätlese and higher Prädikats. Three or four people were occupied daily solely with separating the good botrytis from the bad, which is usually a matter of selecting the best bunches, but here had to proceed berry by berry. Generally speaking,” he added, “our yields this year were good and our sites proved largely resistant to peronospora.” (For more about this estate, consult the introductions to my reports on their 2014s and 2015s. Note that I have moved coverage of Hermann’s exciting joint project with Stefan Steinmetz – which now encompasses two wines – to a separate section of my report, under the rubric “Steinmetz und Hermann” that appears on their labels.)