2016 Riesling Johannishof trocken

“The fungal pressure was unprecedented,” reported Werner Knipser of 2016, but he added that the largest losses to peronospora were with Pinot Noir rather than Riesling, and in both instances resultant poor flowering had its decided advantages. While levels of finished alcohol in the Knipsers’ two 2016 Riesling Grosse Gewächse are comparable – at just under 13% – to those of the corresponding 2015s, 2016 has encouraged the sort of animation, nuance and clarity that have been increasingly evident at this address in recent years. Knipser Rieslings will surprise anyone who imagines that great success with this grape requires stony sites with significant slope. I was able to accompany my July 31, 2017 assessment of those Rieslings with one of the Knipsers’ vintage 2015 Pinot Noirs, three weeks after their assembly in tank and just ahead of their unfiltered bottling. (None will be released, though, before late 2018.) As with the latest crop of Rieslings from this team – Werner, his son Stephan, daughter Sabine and brother Volker – their vintage 2015 Pinots beautifully illustrate a successful attempt to convey elegance and to promote sheer drinkability in a category that, especially within Germany, still seems substantially defined by an aesthetic of power and concentration for their own sakes coupled with a confusion of weightiness with profundity. Werner Knipser suggested that along with refinement in style, extreme millerandage and abundance of tiny seedless berries – legacies of both genetics and erratic flowering – were decisive for the edge these 2015s hold vis-à-vis the Knipsers’ previous best Pinot vintage, 2009. “Conversely, the weather was too good during flowering in 2014,” he noted, “so we had more compact clusters with almost none of those really tiny berries” – though that did not prevent the several additional 2014s I tasted alongside from favorably impressing. Incidentally, the latest results of the Knipsers’ internal massal selection – based on the vines that inform their “RdP” bottling – were recently planted on their Grosses Gewächs sites. “The differences from one vine to another are greater than those between Pinot in one site and another,” observed Knipser. “Certain influential parties aren’t happily to hear that,” he added with a wry grin, “because they’re looking to gain advantages from terroir. Instead, they should learn how to sell Pinot Noir.”

An update is in order regarding Knipser wine nomenclature. This estate was among the earliest to identify certain top wines with vineyard sites more specific than those designated by the official Einzellagen. This led to their also spearheading a trend toward employing one officially declared “front” label referring to the relevant Einzellage – e.g., “Grosskarlbacher Burgweg” – while the actual presentation label referred to the more specific vineyard source, e.g., “Im Grossen Garten.” The Weinkontrolle wasn’t buying that, so at one point those specific sources disappeared from Knipser labels. Now that it is permissible to register for use on wine labels any place names that are enshrined in the cadaster, the Knipsers have been able to revert to their desired degree of specificity. But the relevant Einzellagen are still mentioned on at least one of each wine’s two labels. So I have included both names in my descriptions, e.g. “Grosskarlbacher Burgweg Im Grossen Garten.” (It’s nearly impossible to taste the entire range of Knipser bottlings from even a single vintage, so among 2016 vintage whites that I did not experience are a Gelber Orleans, a Traminer-Riesling blend, two Pinot Gris, and a Riesling “Kalkmergel.” I admit to omitting the Knipsers’ St. Laurent and wines from black Bordelais varieties less by accident than by choice, although the latter garner raves from critics based in Germany. For much more about this estate, including its stylistic evolution, consult the introductions to my accounts of their vintage 2014 and 2015 Rieslings; and for some detail regarding the vineyard sites, consult my tasting notes on the vintage 2014 Rieslings.)