2014 Riesling Dhroner Hofberg Grosses Gewächs

Gerhard Grans, whose Geisenheim-trained daughter Catherina is now stepping into the role of right hand, played a prominent role in the restoration of his home village’s reputation, aided by his serious dedication to dry Riesling not just from Leiwen’s long-underrated Laurentiuslay (in which he has recently been able to nearly double his acreage) but also from Trittenheimer Apotheke and Dhroner Hofberg, a trio now marketed as Grosse Gewächse. These could occasionally too obviously betray in alcohol and phenolic rusticity Grans’ avowed desire to demonstrate that he can render Rieslings to show alongside those of his Pfalz counterparts. But recent Grans Grosse Gewächse have displayed increasing refinement, alcoholic moderation and site-typicity. Grans also bottles impressive residually sweet Trittenheimer and prides himself on the occasional T.B.A., such as a 2011 that finally finished fermenting in time for me to report on it along with Grans’ 2014s. He declared himself “very satisfied” with how the latter vintage has turned out, but added that “we have never before done so much early selecting out of imperfect fruit, so that we could complete the actual harvest – which usually takes four weeks – in just 17 days. Where usually we would harvest botrytized grapes first to give the healthy ones more hang time, this year we needed to pick what was still entirely healthy first. As you know, I have devoted myself to dry wines for a long time and I need fruit as botrytis-free as possible so that I can macerate on the skins [before fermentation] for up to two days, and I did that in 2014, too.” Like her father, Catherina Grans opined that the added phenolic intensity of her family’s Grosses Gewächs leads to ultimately longer-lived and more complex wines, though longtime readers of my Riesling commentary will not be surprised that my experience leads me to be skeptical of any such generalization.