2017 Riesling Alfer Hölle trocken**

Ulrich “Ulli” Stein commenced picking on September 25, 2017 and took advantage of stable weather and stable grape acids to harvest well into October. “From my viewpoint,” he said, “the acidity in 2017 was ideal: there was more than enough, but no deacidification had to be considered.” Happily, conditions permitted an Aldegunder Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett trocken that precisely hit Stein’s target of 10.5% alcohol for wines labeled “Kabinett trocken.”

Stein could scarcely restrain his excitement when he related to me in autumn 2017 that he had found a young understudy – eager to make his own wine after having done stages in France as well as Down Under and been tested by the rigors of back-to-back crushes with Clemens Busch – whom Stein intended to offer an equity opportunity and an eventual route to full ownership. In September 2018, I got to meet and taste with the young man in question, Philip Lardot – born in Finland and raised in Amsterdam – whose remarkable back story I shall for now refrain from elaborating. Certain Stein wines will henceforth officially become products of “Stein & Lardot,” while Lardot renders others under his own label, initial examples of which will be found reviewed as part of the present report under the estate heading “Philip Lardot.”

In other news, Stein has given up his long-held lease on a parcel in Neefer Frauenberg. Like his former, similarly long-standing toehold in the Bremmer Calmont – a vineyard for whose continued existence he bears some proud responsibility – Stein decided this was a responsibility that needed to be passed to other hands, leaving him free to focus on the no less impossibly steep vineyards in his home base of Alf and adjacent St. Aldegund. Stein is, however, retaining his outpost two twists of the Mosel away in Senheim’s Vogteiberg. Stein continues his intriguing experiments in skin-fermentation and oxidative upbringing of Riesling, but I don’t always get around to assessing these, as there are already so many wines to taste and so many viticultural, winemaking and wine-political matters to discuss. I’ll attempt to manage an update on the aforementioned novelties soon. (For abundant details concerning this unusual estate and Stein’s formidable but today largely unfamiliar vineyards, colorful personality and unorthodox labeling practices, consult especially the introduction to my coverage of the 2014s and 2015s, as well as the tasting notes accompanying those reports.)