2017 Riesling Erdener Pralat Auslese

In what would turn out to be former owner Robert Eymael’s last year managing hands-on the Mönchhof (and affiliated Joh. Jos. Christoffel), he reported having faced the most labor-intensive and hence expensive harvest in his four decades. And for all of that effort, yields were miserable, due to the April frost and subsequent harvest conditions. Picking, which lasted from September 25 to mid-October 2017, had to be highly selective, Eymael emphasized, though some of the resulting non-dry bottlings, which presumably reflect marginally less rigorous elimination of botrytis, display a faintly fungal background. Kabinetts harvested well into the legal range of Auslese have long figured in Mönchhof as well as Christoffel collections, and 2017 offers an extreme example of conservatism in assigning Prädikat, though Eymael freely admitted that this approach is driven largely by marketing. Auslesen are automatically not big sellers, whereas there is a consistent demand for Mosel Kabinett. (For further background on Eymael and the historically important Mönchhof, consult the introduction to my report on their 2014s; for information about the change of ownership, see my introduction to notes on its 2016s.)