2018 Riesling trocken

“For as beautiful as the autumn weather was,” said director Karsten Peter, “2018 was not so simple a harvest,” by which he meant not simple to harvest at the right moment to achieve great wine. Gut Hermannsberg recorded a record-early starting date, but then Peter hesitated, unsatisfied with the flavor of grapes in his top sites, and decided to wait, tasting extensively from day to day. “Even after just a single cold night once the weather turned in late September,” he reported, “you could detect the improvement in aromatic potential. Now it was time to pick in earnest. And that’s what made the eventual difference in freshness, elegance, finesse and personality.” Peter believes that a recent composting regimen under vineyard managers Philipp Wolf and Maximillian Schmidt has been critical for allowing the vines to flourish in years with hot, dry summers like 2018 and 2019. The team has tried to strike a balance in managing the vine canopies so as to encourage robust berry skins, but without eliminating shade, and presumably that approach to vine manicure, combined with the prevailing weather, was decisive in rendering the 2018 harvest virtually botrytis-free, so much so that even attempts to collect enough ennobled fruit for an Auslese proved impossible across the 74-acre property. “Okay, there could have been enough individual shriveled berries for some sort of opulent TBA,” admitted Peter, “but not with the level of acidity that one needs for such wine at that level.” Even absent TBA or Auslese, Christine Dinse and Jens Riedel could hardly have asked for a finer present to celebrate their 10th anniversary as owners of the former State Domaine than the latest round of releases, which confirm the return of this property to the top tier of Nahe estates, a return that by my reckoning (and I began tasting here in 1984) has been 35 years in coming. A decline in quality during the mid-1980s was followed by downsizing and privatization. The previous owners struggled earnestly but were unable to recapture the mystique and Riesling magic for which “die Domäne,” as locals referred to it, had already become known within a few years of its inaugural 1907 harvest. As neighbor Helmut Dönnhoff put it: “This comeback is a hugely important signal for our entire region.” (For more on the estate that is now Gut Hermannsberg, including its history, vineyards, current team and methodology, consult the introductions to my reports focused on its wines from vintages 2014, 2015 and 2016.)

As explained in previous reports, Gut Hermannsberg is the Nahe’s one prominent proponent of longer élevage and late release. As of vintage 2016, half of its six Grosse Gewächse – namely Hermannsberg, Bastei and Kupfergrube – began spending a second year in cask. Beginning with vintage 2017, the Kupfergrube, now designated “Grosses Gewächs Reserve,” will be held back for release until five years after harvest. The vintage 2016 Kupfergrube reviewed in my previous report will thus remain current through 2020, while the 2017 will not even be available to taste before late 2021. In writing “six Grosse Gewächse” just now, I become conscious of an omission and an oversight in my coverage. Gut Hermannsberg farms so small a portion of the Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg that they seldom make it available for tasting, and I had neglected to note its absence from wines tasted for recent reports. (But I made sure to taste it this time around!) Gut Hermannsberg’s rhyolitic-porphyric portion of the otherwise slate-dominated Niederhäuser Kerz corresponds to the cadaster parcel known as “In der Rossel,” and beginning in 2019 the estate has registered that name as their monopole, though it remains to be seen whether or when any wine will be so labeled. Old vines in the three broad upper terraces of “In der Rossel” contribute to the “Steinterrassen” bottling, young vines lower down to the new “7 Terroirs” cuvée, about which you can read more in my review of the inaugural 2018. (Kertz in fact ceased in 2017 to be an official Einzellage and was amalgamated into Klamm, as explained in my review of the 2017s from Jakob Schneider, who registered the core of the former Einzellage under the name “Auf der Kertz.”) I greatly regret having to conclude this introduction by reporting that, as of early 2020, Gut Hermannsberg has still not chosen a new US importer, meaning its wines have now been out of North American markets for five vintages. For many lovers of German Riesling, major – but worthwhile – efforts will be needed to acquire bottles.