2014 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese

In 1981, a young Erich Weber set out to render wines almost as if it were the 1880s, soon acquiring an old press house and cellar of the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium. Letting each unchaptalized fermentation run its course uninterrupted in fuder, relying on gravity clarification, and hand-bottling cask by cask, he achieved from once-renowned vineyards in Krettnach and Niedermennig (parcels formerly owned by then-fading large Trier-based domaines) distinctively delicious results that for most of his first two decades were exclusively bone dry. Eventually, changing patterns in climate, picking preferences, cellar flor or some combination of the above led to a significant number of wines finishing fermentation with modest levels of residual sugar, and today legally dry Rieslings, though they remain Erich Weber’s personal preference, are typically outnumbered by a combination of those labeled feinherb plus occasional overtly (but only modestly) sweet Auslesen. Weber was also determined from his domaine’s inception to prove that Pinot Noir could succeed on the Saar, and although the results remain unorthodox for not undergoing malo, there is a memorably delicious, often seductively floral Hofgut Falkenstein Spätburgunder nearly every year (usually red but occasionally pink). Weber’s son Johannes has become very actively engaged in recent years, which has, among other positive results, led to expanded acquisition of top-notch vineyards, all still within the northern half of the so-called Konzer Thälchen (“Little Valley of Konz”), a broad, mile-long expanse that geologists widely theorize was once the Mosel riverbed (and at whose southern edge, just before reuniting with the Saar, no less towering a figure than the Scharzhofberg stands guard).

Erich Weber’s comments on the 2014 vintage and its extreme challenges can be found in the introduction to this Mosel report, and as my tasting notes demonstrate, he and Johannes rose to those challenges, in some instances brilliantly. Two months after harvest, fire devastated the historic Hofgut that has been home for over three decades to the Webers and one other couple whose library included irreplaceable, ancient documents of Mosel and Saar viticulture. Through an almost miraculous stroke of luck, everyone was roused in time to be rescued, and the conflagration never jumped the Webers’ cobbled courtyard, thus sparing press house, cellar and young wines.

In 1981, a young Erich Weber set out to render wines almost as if it were the 1880s, soon acquiring an old press house and cellar of the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium. Letting each unchaptalized fermentation run its course uninterrupted in fuder, relying on gravity clarification, and hand-bottling cask by cask, he achieved from once-renowned vineyards in Krettnach and Niedermennig (parcels formerly owned by then-fading large Trier-based domaines) distinctively delicious results that for most of his first two decades were exclusively bone dry. Eventually, changing patterns in climate, picking preferences, cellar flor or some combination of the above led to a significant number of wines finishing fermentation with modest levels of residual sugar, and today legally dry Rieslings, though they remain Erich Weber’s personal preference, are typically outnumbered by a combination of those labeled feinherb plus occasional overtly (but only modestly) sweet Auslesen. Weber was also determined from his domaine’s inception to prove that Pinot Noir could succeed on the Saar, and although the results remain unorthodox for not undergoing malo, there is a memorably delicious, often seductively floral Hofgut Falkenstein Spätburgunder nearly every year (usually red but occasionally pink). Weber’s son Johannes has become very actively engaged in recent years, which has, among other positive results, led to expanded acquisition of top-notch vineyards, all still within the northern half of the so-called Konzer Thälchen (“Little Valley of Konz”), a broad, mile-long expanse that geologists widely theorize was once the Mosel riverbed (and at whose southern edge, just before reuniting with the Saar, no less towering a figure than the Scharzhofberg stands guard).

Erich Weber’s comments on the 2014 vintage and its extreme challenges can be found in the introduction to this Mosel report, and as my tasting notes demonstrate, he and Johannes rose to those challenges, in some instances brilliantly. Two months after harvest, fire devastated the historic Hofgut that has been home for over three decades to the Webers and one other couple whose library included irreplaceable, ancient documents of Mosel and Saar viticulture. Through an almost miraculous stroke of luck, everyone was roused in time to be rescued, and the conflagration never jumped the Webers’ cobbled courtyard, thus sparing press house, cellar and young wines.