2014 Hochheimer Holle Riesling Kabinett Trocken

Following major expansion in the form of his 1996 acquisition of the Geheimrat Aschrott estate, Gunter Künstler experienced a protracted period during which his collections frequently struck me as lacking the clarity and impeccable balance for which they had become known from the late ‘80s to mid ‘90s. Serious, unforeseeable personnel issues compounded the effects of several vintages that especially challenged Hochheim’s relatively warm and botrytis-prone riverside vineyards, effects which even rigorous selection and charcoal fining could not allay. Happily, the past decade, perhaps not coincidentally since the arrival of cellarmaster Rolf Schregel, has witnessed an impressive return to form. It has also brought another significant expansion – into top Rüdesheim vineyards, via a 2011 leasing arrangement with the Ehrhard family – and a gradual, still ongoing transition to organic viticulture. Unfortunately, my most recent tastings at Künstler had to be done without him present to answer questions about his experiences in 2014, but his collection of Rieslings from this challenging vintage is impressive, especially considering Hochheim’s general susceptibility to rot, which rendered 2006 (to say nothing of 2000) a near disaster. While I skipped recent red wines on this occasion (and frequently find Künstler’s Pinots overly toasty and drying from oak), I did taste a couple of clearly ambitious sparkling wines during my last visit but was unimpressed. Incidentally, I am not sure how the VDP went about determining which sites around Hochheim would be deemed worthy of Grosses Gewächs bottling and which ones would, more recently, be declared “Erste Lagen,” i.e. mere premier as opposed to grand crus. But treating Stielweg, let alone Domdechaney, as inferior in potential to Hölle, let alone Weiss Erd, strikes me as unsupported by gustatory evidence or tradition.