2017 Riesling Bopparder Hamm Engelstein Am Weissen Wacke Spätlese feinherb

Florian Weingart reports his Boppard sector of the Mittelrhein having been largely spared the late April, 2017 frost that wreaked such havoc elsewhere. Nor did he have hail to contend with. Despite that, he ended up with a very short crop, first due to the early and mid-summer drought, and then to the late summer rain, whose volume and precise timing led to unwanted botrytis that had to be painstakingly culled at harvest. (In Bacharach, where Weingart contracts for some fruit, he reports that botrytis was especially problematic.) Picking for Pinot commenced on September 21 and after only a brief pause it was on to Riesling, though the last of that was not gathered until October 18, which, especially considering that his vine surface is now down to less than 14 acres, represents a relatively extended harvest by prevailing 2017 standards. Weingart suggests that the 2017s approach his ideal of “filigree” Riesling. That isn’t an adjective I would use to describe them; but there were certainly some impressive wines, as well as some prime candidates for reevaluation. (See my discussion in the following paragraph of changes to Weingart’s regimen and how these might have impacted the early evolution of his 2017s.) In the majority of recent vintages, not more and often considerably less than half of Weingart’s wines have been legally dry, which led to the latter being very rapidly sold-out to the disappointment of his customers. But he is unwilling to “wrestle” his young wines to below ten grams – whether through heating, re-yeasting or blending-away of lots that exhibit distinctive personalities. In 2017, Weingart went so far as to fearlessly favor arresting fermentations or letting them peter-out prior to reaching analytical dryness, because he felt that residual sugar would balance the vintage’s prominent acidity. (I would add that it might also mask some botrytis-borne bitterness.) As a result – and despite his having largely relied on cultured yeasts to compensate for a sterile new cellar – only five of Weingart’s sixteen whites from vintage 2017 finished trocken. Apropos rapid sell-outs, veteran readers of my reports will note the larger-than-usual number of Weingart wines reviewed on this occasion, despite my having not tasted them until October 30, 2018, roughly two months later than I normally would. (To my knowledge, I missed-out on only two wines.) The reason is simple: Weingart generously (and perhaps out of pity) cracked open for me one after another of the laboratory-labeled back-up bottles left from his submissions to the authorities for Qualitätswein approval.

His 2017 crop was the first that Weingart was able – just barely, time-wise – to vinify in his utterly unique new facilities described in the introduction to my last report. (Full operation had to wait for vintage 2018.) Already with 2017, the new cellar with its extremely stable, low temperature – facilitated not just by its being underground and circular, but by the enormous cylindrical rainwater storage tank that lies at its center – has led to a new routine, namely a stay on the lees through April, with filtration and bottling being deferred almost across the board until May. Weingart, ever the idealist, will ask his customers to wait until summer to do most of their tasting and purchasing, a time of year by which in the past a sizeable number of wines would already have sold out. The transition to this new approach was arguably ideally timed, given the strong acidity and phenolic intensity that characterizes vintage 2017. Then again, Weingart points out that in his experience later bottling leads to less open or exuberant wines, and those of vintage 2017 might inherently have needed longer – indeed, might still need time – to reveal their personalities and potential. Of course, whether wines ferment spontaneously or are yeasted has a major influence on their character, and as mentioned earlier, given a new and essentially sterile cellar in 2017, Weingart felt compelled to rely heavily on yeast cultures. (In 2018, he returned to letting a significant share of his musts ferment spontaneously and was satisfied with their cooperativeness.) Another significant change in the Weingart regimen traceable to the new facilities, though one that will take longer to be felt, is gradual introduction of casks where until now (other than for red Pinot Noir) vinification and aging has long taken place entirely in stainless steel tanks. Vintage 2017 saw the arrival of two 500-liter acacia barrels, which were employed for Weingart’s Spätburgunder Weissherbst. (For background on this estate and its recent evolution, including downsizing, consult the introductions to my account of its 2014s, 2015s and 2016s. Information on the vineyards whose cadaster names Weingart registered in 2014 can be found in my notes on his wines from that vintage.)