2000 Riesling Ürziger Würzgarten Spätlese

Hans-Leo Christoffel has leased his vineyards to the Monchhof's Robert Eymael, but will continue to oversee vinification. Two thousand, the last vintage under his old regime, has treated Christoffel kindly, or should one say that his firm hand has kept nature in check? "There were good days and bad days," he says about the harvest, and asked when he sprayed replied: "once, at the right time. If you didn't, not just the fruit but even the foliage was going to rot. And if you hedged too closely, trying to dry things out, that was bad, too. Foliage makes the sugar. We had to wait later to pick, by which time the measurable acids were not significantly higher than in 1999. They just taste much higher." (Terry Theise)