German Vintage 2007

Last week-end I spoke with several TOP winemakers from Germany, like Mr. Dönnhoff, Mr. Wittmann, Mr. Schönleber and the CEO of VDP, Mr. Christmann,
and according to all winemakers the vintage 2007 is very, very promising. Mr. Wittmann/Rheinhessen compared it with the outstanding vintage 2001 or even better. If you´re interested here are some statements from Wittman, Dönnhoff and short comments from Emrich-Schönleber or A. Christmann in german.

http://berlinkitchen.com/berlinkitchen/ ... dcast.html

So, great chance to buy outstanding dry or sweet Rieslings at the end of the year.........

Best,
Martin

[David M. Bueker]

Martin,

Since the podcasts are in German could you summarize their comments a little bit here? Is it going to be another big, rich vintage like 2005 and 2006, or are we looking at more classical wines with perhaps some real kabinett?

First, in contrast to the vintage 2006, there will be much more quantities. This means enough Rieslings for everyone. As you know David, the production
of the vintage 2006 was very,very small.

Frank Schönleber/Nahe said, the wines will be very elegant, powerful, subtle/filigree and have a long-aging potential.

Philipp Wittmann/Rheinhessen said, the vintage 2007 will be as good as the outstanding vintage 2001 or maybe better. For the first time since a few years, the winemaker had a perfect time-window, this means the winemaker could decide personally when he wanted to harvest the grapes, how to finish the grapes, the wish of the winemaker which wine-type will emerge and as a result you will find the clear signature of the winemaker in the wines. The winemakers could wait for the optimal maturity of the grapes.

Mr. Dönnhoff/Nahe said, the Rieslings of 2007 will be marathon-runner, very robust and clear wines with a firm acidity, not much boytritis. The winedrinkers need patience, as the wines need more time as other vintages. But they taste already amazing........

Martin, thanks very much for your notes on the new vintage. Notwithstanding the normal hype from producers for the new vintage, it does sound promising - Germany really has had a remarkable run of vintages since 2000, though they are all quite different.

Do you have an idea of which regions were most successful in 2007? The Saar and Mosel have had the best of it for the last few hot vintages, it seems; did this continue in 2007, or did the slow ripening period and lack of botrytis mean that the north and south did equally well?

John, very interesting question there! I am really keen on the Mosels still so look forward to an answer from Martin.

Martin, thanks very much for your notes on the new vintage. Notwithstanding the normal hype from producers for the new vintage, it does sound promising - Germany really has had a remarkable run of vintages since 2000, though they are all quite different.

Do you have an idea of which regions were most successful in 2007? The Saar and Mosel have had the best of it for the last few hot vintages, it seems; did this continue in 2007, or did the slow ripening period and lack of botrytis mean that the north and south did equally well?

John, in this case it is no hype! We really had such a lovely autumn, so sunny in september and october. Here is more in english form the VDP concerning the vintage 2007. I would say every region were successful in 2007. Please go to VINTAGE YEAR FOR PRÄDIKATSWEIN ESTATES on the VDP website.

http://vdp.de/english/



Best,
Martin

I thought the most exciting thing about 07 was the existance of "recognizable" kabinetts?!

I would assume that from QbA to Eiswein the wines are outstanding!

I would assume that from QbA to Eiswein the wines are outstanding!

Modest assumption

A subject close to me since Mosel for me is the greatest white wine region in the world, and I am living here.

In my view there hasn't been that great string of vintages! Is this a general conception in USA? What do our german freinds say?

For me they are like this:
2001 was probably better around Franfurt then here, both 2001 ans 2002 are good to very good, with 2002 slightly better and offers better drinking today in my view. 2003 was an outright disaster. If classifying vintages from 1 to 5 2003 is probably the only modern to deserve a 1. 2004 was week and difficult a 2. 2005 was great but with some acidity and fast ripening problems maybe a 4 would be more accurate than a 5. 2006 has turned out much better than one would have expected from the weather and problems such as early botrytis with following hot weather and hail, still in scale 1 to 5 its a 3/4 where the wines now show very well, more of a 3 for Mosel at least.

So, in my view, its mostly 2001/2002 very good, 2005 excellent and 2006 good/very good.

Any thoughts on this Mosel centered perspective?

Best
FredriK Svensson. Luxembourg

[David M. Bueker]

So, in my view, its mostly 2001/2002 very good, 2005 excellent and 2006 good/very good.

Any thoughts on this Mosel centered perspective?

Wow. That's significantly different from how I view it, and I've been buying, tasting & drinking lots of Mosel wines since the mid-90s. I agree that 2003 is not so good, and I agree that 2005 is excellent, though I would prefer a little more acid in the wines. It's really too early to say, but 2006 is ok to me but nothing special at all. I find the wines too rich, and even with their good acidity I don't like kabinett that tastes like gold capsule auslese.

Now we get to the significant divergence:

2004 I like very much. Is it an outstanding vintage? No it's not, but for classically styled kabinett, spatlese and even some auslese it's a fine vintage and a rarity these days. I've been drinking a number of 2004s lately, and they still impress me with their balance and elegance. Lovely wines.

2002 is an excellent vintage much in the same mold of 2004 if slightly bigger. Sure there were some problems with later picked wines, but there's so many delicious wines that were harvested a bit earlier. It's another great drinking vintage like 2004. There are only a few wines I will hold for the long term, but I will drink every bottle of kabinett, spatlese & auslese I purchased with great pleasure.

2001 is fantastic. I have tasted extensively from the pre-release tastings here in the USA, a few late release wines in producers cellars when I visited the Mosel in 2003, and from mine and others' stocks in their cellars since release. Is 2001 the biggest vintage? No, 2005 has more richness and weight. But 2001 has such amazing balance, is aging so slowly and gracefully and has such purity of Riesling fruit that I can't compare it to any vintage I have tasted young. Now I know the 1971s are legendary, and 1975 is also outstanding, but at least in the "modern" era I cannot find anything to compare with 2001 in the Mosel. If we're including Saar and Ruwer in this discussion there are other issues, but for the Mosel 2001 is a watershed vintage for my tastes. Bonus points to 2001 for some amazing eiswein along the Mosel.