2014 Riesling trocken

For four decades, the affable and gregarious Eberhard von Kunow, well known for wielding the gavel at Trier’s renowned Grosser Ring wine auction and a direct descendant of his estate’s first secular owner under Napoleon, rendered consistently fine, frequently underrated collections of residually sweet Riesling. (The token trocken or two that he turned out most years could also be excellent.) In addition to dedicated stewardship of his signature holdings in the Scharzhofberg and monopole Oberemmeler Hütte, von Kunow acquired in the middle of the Kanzemer Altenberg a prime parcel that constitutes its own tiny Einzellage: Hörecker. After training in Geisenheim early in the new millennium, son Max von Kunow began working as a consultant in neighboring Luxembourg, in part because he and his father found it difficult to collaborate. A sudden health crisis in 2010 forced doctors to place the elder von Kunow into a coma for months with a slim prognosis of recovery. The upshot was a conflict-free generational transition (albeit with a new cellarmaster) to a young proprietor eager to take his family’s Rieslings into new stylistic territory while respecting family traditions; and, after a couple of years’ rehabilitation, an improbably healthy, active but retired Eberhard von Kunow. Major thrusts of Max von Kunow’s work include transitioning to entirely organic viticulture; establishing long-term fruit contracts that have nearly doubled the acreage under estate control; exploring an expanded range of vinficatory options including both direct pressing and skin maceration; rendering Grosse Gewächse, but also Rieslings of subtle or hidden sweetness; revitalizing the tradition of Kabinett Rieslings modest in both alcohol and residual sugar; seriously reviving a long-dormant family tradition of Riesling Sekt; bottling profound kosher Riesling; and perpetuating cross-border collaborations, begun during his years away from home, with Luxembourg vintners and restaurateurs.

It’s a wonder that so many of these ambitions have within just five years borne impressive fruit, though the younger von Kunow’s stylistic decisions have engendered some lively controversy, as has his approach to vintage 2014. Although he reports having like most growers rushed to complete the harvest ahead of encroaching botrytis, there is an occasional background tone from the brush with rot that several keen observers have told me they find objectionable, especially given that it crops up in at least one wine labeled “Kabinett.” There is an arguably fine line between what counts as beneficial botrytis and what counts as rot, and a careful reading of my tasting notes should make clear why I am more kindly disposed than are some of my colleagues toward Max von Kunow’s 2014s, around half of which I re-tasted this past spring. Von Kunow elected not to attempt any Grosse Gewächse from this vintage, blending the best dry lots from his three crus into the “Riesling Trocken R” reviewed below.

I can’t resist mentioning von Kunow’s account of his 2008 Riesling Brut Reserve, reviewed below, because it offers insight into his personality and his approach to Saar tradition as well as innovation. “This was the first [estate] product I truly made myself,” he says, “because my father was in a coma, so we nicknamed it ‘the coma wine.’” Inspired by grandparents who founded a Trier Sekt Kellerei, von Kunow assembled selected batches of Spätlese trocken from Hütte and Scharzhofberg – hardly your usual Sekt material – and replicated the approach that prevailed during their era: “The base wines spent two years in cask and then four years in the bottle ... in our cellar, which has stable, low temperature and high humidity critical to obtaining a super Sekt, something that has a great tradition of the Saar. Only under such conditions are you going to get a slow, two-month-long second fermentation. Most German growers turn over their base wine to specialists, giving as justification that it’s exorbitantly expensive to purchase disgorgement equipment and a specialized bottling line. But that’s bull. You can rent everything you need nowadays. I took the wine to a Luxembourg facility, took complete control of the process, and dosed with Hütte Auslese.”