2015 Riesling feinherb

“We left a generous canopy and were sparing with leaf removal,” notes Karsten Peter of 2015, “which helped insure plenty of freshness and a cooling element in the finished wines.” I would add though, that there is not just coolness here but sometimes also considerable youthful austerity. “The September rains give botrytis a bit of a boost,” he adds, “but what little there was early on subsequently dried-up superbly to permit nobly sweet wines, the best of which were picked right away and became our auctioned Auslese and the Trockenbeerenauslese. What developed toward the end informed our ‘normal’ Auslesen.” Yields were decent but not large, he adds, and taken together with the dominance of healthy fruit, that convinced the team that very little pre-harvest culling was necessary other than for the aforementioned nobly sweet wines. The 2015s here confirm the return of greatness to the former Nahe State Domaine, swelling the Nahe’s formidable share of Germany’s top Riesling estates. (For information on the history of this recently revived estate, consult the introduction to my coverage focused on their 2014s.)

The VDP may preach the importance of there being a tier of village-designated Ortsweine, so as to conform to their notion of Burgundian practice; but estate director Peter is by no means the only German grower to report that “consumers don’t really relate to the notion of Ortswein [können relativ wenig damit anfangen],” for which reason the estate’s bottlings formerly labeled for Niederhausen and Schlossböckelheim are now being labeled, respectively “Schiefer” and “Vulkan.” In a simultaneous departure from the VDP’s affected “Burgundian” practice, the applicable village names are being rendered a bit more prominently on labels of Gut Hermannsberg Grosse Gewächse. “If we want consumers to become familiar with the names of wine villages and associate these with high quality,” explains Peter sensibly, “then that is an obvious place to start.” Speaking of Grosse Gewächse, their number at this estate is being gradually increased, with Niederhäuser Steinberg having debuted from 2015 and a Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg due in the near future. Since vintage 2014, the Grosse Gewächse from Schlossböckelheimer Kupfergrube, Traiser Bastei and Niederhäuser Hermannsberg have been receiving 18 or more months’ élevage and not being released until the second spring after harvest. Traditional (1,200 liter) Stückfässer and Halbstückfässer now play a prominent role in the upbringing of Gut Hermannsberg’s dry wines, but a share of stainless steel tank is being retained, even for the Grosses Gewächs. I was surprised at how relatively austere those wines remained even after long élevage, but their personalities will no doubt especially resonate with a segment of the German wine loving public (not to mention of Peter’s fellow wine professionals) who profess to prize “puristic” Riesling.

I must apologize, incidentally, for not having been more curious about the high A.P. #s of this year’s two Schlossböckelheimer Kupfergrube Auslesen, which indicate that there is an enormous number of Gut Hermannsberg bottlings that I have not been getting to taste. I suspect that these are represented largely by multiple bottlings of the generic cuvées (in which case I need to in future attend to the A.P. #s of those that I taste). I’ll of course report back once I get to the bottom of this mystery.