2010 Riesling Reiler Mullay-Hofberg feinherb Pfefferberg

Thorsten Melsheimer harvested from around October 10, 2015 through the first week of November. In an account familiar for this vintage, he related that levels of tartaric acid kept rising relative to malic, but grape sugars remained stable. Those two features appear to have played directly into his hand, accentuating the combination of textural creaminess with clarity and generous juiciness that his malolactically transformed Rieslings can exhibit, as well as their ability to project ripe flavors at analytical dryness yet low alcohol. But since most of the dry or at least dry-tasting Melsheimer wines (which represent the majority of estate production) now spend a year or more in cask, on my last visit here in September 2016, many 2015s had just been or were about to be bottled. As my notes reveal, those I tasted from bottle did not seem adversely affected, but a fuller picture of 2015 here will emerge from my next visit. Apropos of time in cask, when I visited, Melsheimer was only just offering his 2012 generic Riesling trocken, concurrent with the 2014, as the former had taken two full years just to finish fermenting. (There was certainly some intrigue to that wine, but it wanted a bit for clarity and fruit and exhibited a hint of yogurt.) To learn much more about this German pioneer of organic viticulture, his unusual methods and his important but long-neglected vineyard sites, consult the introduction to my account of his 2014s. Suffice it to here remind readers that his Rieslings are influenced by minimal sulfuring (one is sulfur-free), which helps explain their undergoing malolactic transformation.