2022 Riesling Dhroner Hofberg Grosses Gewächs

Catherina Grans took over from her father, Gerhard Grans, in July 2022, but she has worked alongside him since 2017. Buying top holdings has been a constant aim of the estate. Today, their 13 hectares contain the core parcels of Trittenheimer Apotheke, Dhroner Hofberg, Leiwener Laurentiuslay and Piesporter Goldtröpfchen – some of them with over 100-year-old vines. Replanting happens vine by vine, and it often takes five years before newly planted vines even bear fruit in an existing vineyard. Ninety percent of plantings are Riesling, with the balance comprising Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Gerhard Grans decided to focus on dry wines. Catherina continues in this vein and says 95% of production is dry, although off-dry and sweet are still made. This is why even the oldest vine parcels have been converted from single stakes to wire trellises, even though this conversion is as expensive as re-planting a new vineyard. In her view, it allows even ripening for her top dry wines and helps avoid botrytis at any cost, as she can de-leaf the fruiting zone of her canopy for all-important ventilation. Grapes are hand-harvested, and botrytis is stringently avoided for any dry wines. They receive about three hours of skin contact before being fermented in stainless steel. All the work in the cellar is as reductive as possible to achieve a style that results, in her own words, in “elegance, finesse and purity.” The wines are clean-cut and precise, vivid and racy. They have verve, sleekness and depth. Even in 2022, she managed not to bottle a single wine with less than 8g/L of acidity. The 2022 harvest started on 13 September with Pinot Blanc; the first Riesling was harvested on 20 September, and picking concluded on 6 October. The estate has a laudable policy of keeping back 25% of the wines of each harvest to release them later with bottle age. During my visit, I tasted the entire range of 2022 Rieslings; Grans also managed to select an Auslese.