2016 Riesling Eiswein

Loosen and Schug (a.k.a. “Erni and Berni”) harvested from October 4 through November 5, 2016, doing so steadily and at a relaxed tempo thanks to almost continually clear skies. Even with the catch-up supplied by ideal September and early October weather, though, Loosen emphasized the irregularity of ripening that remained – the legacy of a spun-out, rain-plagued flowering. His approach was to pick most parcels and vines twice, on the first pass separating ripe, healthy fruit for Grosse Gewächse and more shaded lower-must weight clusters for Kabinett; on the second, focused on bunches closest to the cane, segregating the healthiest for Grosses Gewächs and those overripe or tinged with botrytis for Auslese. “It was hard to find Spätlese” observed Schug, “because after Kabinett, Grosses Gewächs and Auslese material, there wasn’t much left. And must weights didn’t go much higher [in healthy fruit]. What we collected for Spätlese was literally late-picked.” And those results were especially impressive. Although the extent of botrytis did not suffice for BA or TBA, Loosen and Schug left an incredible 10 acres of healthy 2016 grapes hanging for Eiswein (and that’s despite most of the Bernkasteler Lay – historically the prime source for Loosen Eiswein – being temporarily out of production). Their bet paid off.

Whether the meticulous selection that Loosen, like many other growers, deems requisite for Grosses Gewächs might sometimes result in overly homogeneous raw material is at least a hypothesis worth considering. But you won’t find evidence for it in his 2016 collection. While some of this year’s dry bottlings lean toward austerity, as a whole – including the generic blends – they exhibit an animation, clarity and sheer refreshment that I only wish could be taken for granted at this or most other German Riesling-growing addresses, and which I did not find as frequently in the corresponding Loosen 2015s. Yet impressive though Loosen’s dry 2016s are, having now tasted four “Reserve” Grosses Gewächs collections representing the highly diverse vintages 2011-2014, it seems clear to me that two or more years in cask is a recipe for added textural allure, clarity and complexity. Loosen and Schug are in fact contemplating discontinuing a “regular” Prälat Grosses Gewächs and instead shunting the entirety of dry wine labeled for that site into a “Reserve” bottling that would be given two or more years in cask. And apropos of “more,” bear in mind that Loosen still has dry Riesling in cask from vintages 2012-2014 (and from multiple sites) which he hopes will eventually supply an indication of how long a stay is optimum. (Will he be forced to imitate Bernd Philippi by labeling his longest-élevage dry wines “RR”?) He seems already to be leaning toward an answer of “three years,” and his understanding was that the dry wines of his great-grandfather that inspired the whole Dr. Loosen “Reserve” project had spent between two and three years in cask. I jumped at a rare opportunity to taste with both Loosen and Schug rather than just one of them, not realizing at the time that our late July 2017 appointment would have me arriving ahead of much of their 2016 collection’s bottling. (For much more about this renowned estate consult the introductions to my accounts focused on vintages 2014 and 2015.)