2017 Riesling trocken Alte Reben

Cecelia Jost reports having had considerable success combatting the late April frost. Rather than burning candles in her Bacharach vineyards, fires were lit in small “ovens.” Still, buds were nipped in many places and the eventual crop was 25-30% below average. (In Walluf, losses to frost were slightly less.) During the summer, regular monitoring for drought stress – a frequent practice chez Jost, because the Hahn has long been equipped with drip-lines (thanks to special dispensation as a pilot project) – revealed that enough moisture remained from earlier in the year to avoid irrigating; at least, on condition that the grape clusters were relieved of their tails and shoulders and the vines thus relieved of stress. The last week of September was already occupied entirely with harvesting of Riesling – including the collection’s two Kabinetts – and at a rapid tempo, too, reports Jost, since the fruit was thoroughly ripe. While the last bit of Riesling wasn’t harvested until October 17 – the earliest finishing-date in this estate’s history – only one genuinely late-hanging, botrytis-inflected wine was attempted, so that for a second year running, there is no wine “above” Spätlese.

“Above all, I really like the fine acidity of the 2017s,” remarks Jost, and indeed I found abundant – at times downright sharp – brightness in the wines, a characteristic relatively rare in Jost collections, especially in wines from the Hahn’s sun-drenched slopes (which, as I explained in my previous report, are now partly Pinot- rather than Riesling-clad). “I don’t believe we have any dry wine with less than eight grams of acidity, which is unusual for us,” observes Jost, adding that “in fact, I’m very glad that the 2017s have such unusually high dry extract to complement [ergänzen] the acids,” Also unusual, notes Jost, is the fact that every bit of fruit from the Hahn – given how little there was and how high its quality – went into a vineyard-designated bottling. Even what came from very young vines wasn’t declassified but instead found its way into this vintage’s Hahn Kabinett. Unfortunately, not a single bottle of the vintage 2017 “regular” Hahn trocken – as opposed to the “Im Hahn” Grosses Gewächs – remained available for me to taste by the time I visited the Josts in October, 2018. One lot of Walkenberg Riesling had not yet been bottled and Jost indicated it would not be released before mid-2019 and then perhaps not as Grosses Gewächs.” Nothing against that category,” she remarked enigmatically, “but I have a certain idea about how this wine might turn out, and I’m not sure whether that idea fits with the idea of Grosses Gewächs.” (For more about this estate and its recent evolution, consult the introductions to my coverage of its 2014s, 2015s and 2016s. My previous report and tasting notes – focused on vintage 2016 Rieslings – also canvassed recent Jost Pinot Noirs.)