2018 Riesling Maximin Grünhäuser Alte Reben

The vintage 2018 Grünhaus collection is the first that I have tasted with Maximin von Schubert rather than with his father Carl or the estate’s cellarmaster (a role filled since 2004 by Stefan Kraml). Young Grünhaus, who expressed delight with the combination of quality and quantity wrought in 2018, said that while the Pinots as well as Riesling for Sekt got picked September 18–22, the Riesling harvest otherwise only began on the 23rd of that month, and was completed 30 days later. Initial must weights were not excessive at the onset of harvest and he reported relief and to some extent surprise that acid levels were (and remained) elevated. “There was a real jump in must weights around the beginning of October,” though, noted von Schubert, something that few other growers seem to have experienced. Between the sheer abundance of grapes and their evident high quality, selection was carried out not from necessity but simply to capture instances of especially advanced ripeness and overall concentration, as well as of botrytis influence. There was so much healthy shriveling, said von Schubert, that some desiccated grapes even ended up in Spätlesen. But the principal upshot of high ripeness and selection for healthy as well as botrytized desiccation is an array of numbered Auslese bottlings whose extent is unprecedented at this address, and on top of that multiple Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen.

Taken as a whole, the vintage 2018 Grünhaus collection represents an impressive and very welcome advance over that of the previous year – though I must qualify “whole.” I was not shown this year’s bottling from the diminutive Bruderberg. The aforementioned array of nobly sweet, lot-numbered Auslesen, explained von Schubert with a grin, includes “four that are being held back as insurance against a year when I need something at that level to show.” I’m not sure just how many wines of higher Prädikat than Auslese will eventually be unveiled, but at the time of my September 2019 visit, the four (yes, four) anticipated TBAs were all still fermenting. I also did not taste the 2018 Pinot Blanc Reserve, as that was being given extended time in cask. I feel almost churlish mentioning this, and I recognize that there are oenophiles, critics and (according to von Schubert) restaurateurs and sommeliers for whom this wine holds attraction, but I once again found little to like about a Grünhaus “Fusion” Riesling – this from vintage 2015 – whose acidity came off as a sour streak against a drying background of wood resin, and whose 13.5% alcohol could scarcely be overlooked. (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.)