2016 Riesling Kabinett S

Even allowing for the substantial expansion of his estate following the 2014 vintage – when Max von Kunow purchased the 22-acre Schmitt-Reuter Estate in Krettnach – he and his crew accomplished nearly their entire 2016 harvest within the second half of October. Unfortunately, that was partly on account of the crop having been significantly reduced due to peronospora. The tiny monopole Hörecker was a complete loss. But von Kunow emphasizes that losses varied greatly depending on location, and that the brisk tempo of harvest was largely a function of healthy, amply-ripe fruit and weather that permitted picking without interruption. There was botrytis here and there, though, cropping up not only in a Hütte Spätlesen, that von Kunow bottled, but in the outstanding – and for this Saar vintage relatively rare – Auslese that he was able to coax from his parcel in the Knepp portion of the Scharzhofberg. Von Kunow may well have thought that, in his words, “everything clicked” in 2015. But in aggregate, his 2016 collection is even more impressive, and represents a considerably more impressive accomplishment considering nature’s challenges.

“Just the fact that I have given up using herbicides,” suggests von Kunow, “already accounts for a lot of the differences one can taste in my wines in the last couple of vintages. In my experience, not just here but at other estates, if you employ herbicides the wines tend toward more exotic fruit flavors like pineapple and litchi, whereas if you don’t use herbicides you get more herbal, tea-like and mineral elements.” What’s more, he hypothesizes that the return of native herbs, in often quite site-specific populations, is directly responsible via their essential oils for this shift in flavors – “provided,” he adds, “that you don’t beat the wine up too badly.” To these alleged “natural” causes of the aforementioned stylistic shift must certainly be added both von Kunow’s willingness to let fermentations stop where they will, even if with unfashionable halbtrocken levels of residual sugar, and above all his increasingly militant advocacy of alcoholic levity – as witness a 2016 Scharzhofberg Grosses Gewächs of 10.5% alcohol! (Speaking of style, consult my note on von Kunow’s Hütte Spätlese feinherb for ominous indications that VDP regulations are going to make life yet more difficult for member growers with a laissez-faire attitude toward residual sugar. Incidentally, I did not have a chance to taste this year’s Pinot Blanc. For background on this estate and its recent evolution under Max von Kunow, consult the introductions to my coverage of its 2014s and 2015s.)