WTN: I learn from Grünhaus Superior

Over the past year and a half I’ve had the 2006 and 2007 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Superior every few months and this weekend as I finished my last bottles I was (inevitably) the most impressed.

At first I was very curious because (like all good people) I love the winery in general. But these Superior wines seemed broad, unfocused, plodding, and difficult. At various points I preferred the 06 or the 07 but I never actively ‘liked’ either bottling. Until this weekend.

The 06 showed particularly well with dinner (farro tagliatelle in a spinach pesto sauce) as it was much more savory, minerally, and precise than in the past. However, as it aired it provided too much evidence of its 06 Oomph, and the real star of the two was the 07. It had ‘magically’ slimmed down from previous bottles and was just so damned zesty. I even caught the familiar crunchy cucumber profile of Abtsberg that I loved from the officially off-dry wines but had never seen previously in this Superior bottling.

If only I could keep following these wines into the future. But I didn’t buy enough!

Such is life.

Sorry Rahsaan but is this wine from the Mosel?

Rahsaan, I'm glad to read this report. I still have some 2007. Some Grünhaus vintages take much longer to come out of their shell than that.

Sorry Rahsaan but is this wine from the Mosel?

It's from the Ruwer, a tributary of the Mosel. One of my favourites estates, less than 2 and a half hours drive from here at normal times but a lot longer today because of snow which in Alberta you would consider just a sprinkling.

I still have some 2007. Some Grünhaus vintages take much longer to come out of their shell than that.

Yes, I know. In some respects it was obvious and only waiting three/four years for a Grunhaus wine is nothing. But I was curious about these wines so I drank them, and since they didn't have the track record of the other wines I didn't want to use my preciously limited storage on them. I still have one measly bottle of 07 Abtsberg spatlese trocken, but will hold off on that for a while.

How's that song go? "You don't always know what you got 'til it's gone."

I have found, over the last, oh, 35 years (gulp) that the Greenhouse Effect has kicked that song into refrain more often than any other producer I can think of.

It has always been amazing to me that the Grunhausen can appear at various times during their lives as sloppy, fat, thin, screechy, loose-knitted, overly tight and parsimonious----then open to such glorious richness and balance and harmony with the power to stun me into appreciative silence.

And of course, it always seems to happen when it's the last bottle.

Some things will always remain a mystery. I think Grunhaus is one of those things.

. I still have one measly bottle of 07 Abtsberg spatlese trocken, but will hold off on that for a while.

OK, now I'm confused, I thought that the Superior wines were started because they were going to give up on doing Spatlese trocken, the proprietary name giving them more freedom? I guess I need to read up a bit.
Agree re amazing ability of the MaxG wines to change character through evolution.

OK, now I'm confused, I thought that the Superior wines were started because they were going to give up on doing Spatlese trocken, the proprietary name giving them more freedom?

The Superior wines are allowed to ferment as long as they will go with spontaneous fermentation, so there is some residual sugar and less control over the style. Not sure how it really fits into their other offerings but apparently this "Laissez Faire" approach is spreading across some German winemakers. I haven't been convinced that it is as interesting as their 'traditional' off-dry wines, but this weekend's 07 Superior began to make the case. (And I've only tasted 06 and 07 versions of Superior).

From the 2008 vintage they replaced Spatlese Trocken with Alte Reben Trocken.

thanks, I mistakenly thought it was a designation for wines that they were positioning as on borderline of trocken/halbtrocken (where they didn't want to worry about regulations- like the Pinon Tradition).