2016 Pinot Noir Maximin Grünhäuser

Although the von Schuberts’ vineyards escaped late-summer hail that afflicted near neighbors on the other side of the Ruwer, their 2017 yields had already been cut roughly in half by the April frost. Picking for Pinots began on September 19. A week later, the earliest Riesling harvest in the estate’s history commenced, lasting only until October 10 – the same day that it began in 2016! In haste to avoid ignoble rot making further inroads into an already tiny crop, Carl von Schubert confessed that “there simply wasn’t time to indulge in selective picking for Beerenauslese, TBA, or multiple cask-numbered Auslesen.” (Warning: Under Maximin von Schubert’s direction, harvest and bottling decisions here in 2018 made up for those deficiencies with a vengeance!) As it is, volumes in the Kabinett range were especially tiny, with the bulk of the 2017 harvest consisting of musts that could really only be bottled as Spätlese or as dry-tasting wines of 11.5–12% alcohol. The overall results are occasionally outright exciting, and, as in other recent years, a higher number of outstanding wines are featured here than in other Ruwer collections of the vintage. (For further background on this estate, consult my introductions to coverage of its 2014, 2015 and 2016 collections. The latter two introductions address stylistic evolution here over the past two decades, and my vintage 2016 introduction explains numerous recent changes in labeling nomenclature.)