2018 Riesling Traiser Steinberg Grosses Gewächs

The Crusius family, with their sizable contingent of non-Riesling vines, including Auxerrois, began harvesting shockingly early even by the standards of 2018 – namely, on September 4. Every year, the family invites a different significant musical talent to headline a weekend of “pre-harvest” festivities... only in 2018, picking had by then already been underway for several days. By mid-September, the first Riesling grapes were arriving at the press house, but the harvest lasted until late October. “There was no hurry, given the fine weather and stable grapes,” said Rebecca Crusius, who is now full-time in the family cellar and, for the first time in any of my visits, showed me the latest collection. To judge by the proliferation of bottlings at this address, demand must be strong: 2018 brought a third dry Gutsriesling, an inaugural Kupfergrube Kabinett, a fifth Grosses Gewächs and a new village-level wine to the Crusius portfolio.

Regular readers of my reports will know that I have been tasting with this family for 35 years but have often not shared quite the enthusiasm that most of my colleagues have for Peter Crusius’ results; I frequently find them a bit soft, loose and lacking in focus, which doesn’t at all have to be the case with Rieslings that undergo malolactic transformation. In the realm of ennobled sweetness, results can sometimes be rather raw-edged or obvious in their expression of botrytis. I was thus, frankly, trepidatious in approaching the collection from a vintage not noted for brightness or sharp definition, but the best dry Crusius 2018s are animating and multifaceted. Generous fruitiness and soothing softness characterize the collection as a whole, and the nobly sweet offerings – surprisingly extensive for the vintage, if fewer than in some other recent collections – largely impress. (For background on this estate, consult the introductions to my reviews of its 2014s and 2017s. For an explanation of some important recent label changes at this address, see my report on the 2015s. And concerning the often striking deviation of my assessments from those of my German journalistic colleagues, refer to the introduction to my report on the Crusius 2016s.)