2015 Riesling Deidesheimer Langenmorgen Grosses Gewächs

“We’ve never harvested as early or as rapidly as we did in 2015,” reported Steffan Christmann. “As we were harvesting in Ruppertsberg, we saw where the first small infections of botrytis had arrived. So we let the entire affected parcel hang. One week later, we returned and were picking Beerenauslese, effectively Trockenbeerenauslese straight off the vine, just separating those bunches that still had some green-gold berries into one bucket for Auslese, everything else in another, and that was complete air-dried raisins, with not a bit of fungus to be seen. So it was clear to me in retrospect,” he concluded, “that if we had waited a week or 10 days to begin harvesting at all, the entire crop would have gone in that direction.” There was also some late shriveling in Idig and Meerspinne. And so, from a grower who not many years ago told me he was done with nobly sweet wines, we have a small collection of them. “They’ll probably take a few years to sell through,” Christmann remarked, even though all but one represents 300 or fewer 500-liter bottles, “but we can always use a little bit of such wine.” Relatively early picking fits a trend at this estate in recent years, as Christmann aims to rein in alcohol. (For more about his opinions on that subject as well as further background on this estate, consult the introduction to my account of its 2014s.) Still, I can’t help reflecting on the fact that his wines from the more challenging 2014 vintage have the distinct qualitative edge overall. One other trend Pfalz-wide, perhaps in part a response to the successful use of new 500-liter barrels at Von Winning, is for a significant number of wines to display oak influence. Christmann’s vessels of choice remain tank and traditional Doppelstückfass, but a significant number of the latter have been replaced over the last several years. Besides preferring larger casks stylistically, Christmann points out that they are more economical. “A 2,400-liter Doppelstück can be utilized for 50, maybe 80 years. A 500 I can use for five years, maybe 10 at the most.”