2017 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese

Erich and Johannes Weber view vintage 2017 as a calamity followed by almost unmitigated good news. The late April frost cost them more than a third of average yields, but they reported that their vines and grape bunches dealt handily with the heat and drought of midsummer as well as the rains that followed. Picking began on September 23 and concluded on October 11. In what would turn out to be a major contrast with vintage 2018, the Webers were very happy that seven out of 20 casks of Riesling fermented to legal Trockenheit, and that includes the largest (superb!) collection of dry Kabinetts that this estate has bottled in many years (one of which, not canvassed below, was as usual treated as “house wine”). I continue to marvel at the degree of complexity and textural allure that the Webers achieve with wines that are bottled as early as March following the vintage (and generally by May). But one needs to bear in mind that the “diet” of lees enjoyed by Weber Rieslings frequently reflects a “mother” that is kept alive in the bottom of the cask from one vintage to the next. And almost certainly, too, there is a relationship between texture and low yields from old vines. The increasing number of oenophiles who now covet this estate’s wines will be happy to learn that new parcels were acquired in time to swell the ranks of 2017s, in addition to which, based on their assessment of quality, the Webers also bottled wine from a couple of parcels whose fruit they usually sell off to a co-op. (Yet more parcels, some quite exciting, have been added since 2017.)

Readers for whom Hofgut Falkenstein is new are urged to consult the introductions to my coverage of their 2014s, 2015s, and 2016s for details on this estate, which pursues vinification and bottling practices that Riesling lovers are no longer likely to encounter anywhere else. (Those earlier texts will also inform readers about the so-called Konzer Thälchen sector of the Saar that the Webers farm.) The Webers neglected to present me one of their two Krettnacher Euchariusberg Spätlesen – namely, the A.P. #6 – on which I therefore unfortunately cannot report.