Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen, Bayern, Württemberg allow acid adds

The German government allows acidity additions to must in almost all wine regions of Germany. Because the early ripeness the natural acid plummeted into the basement.

At the 5th of September the German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner spoke about ab outstanding wine year at the grape picking in Erlenbach (Franken). She also said that the year has the potential of a good or even outstanding year!

If this would be true the provinces Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen, Bayern and Baden-Württemberg would never had allowed the artificial improvement of the acidity in the must. The first musts show a below 4g/l. As low as seen the last in 2003.

The allowance seems to be a good thing for the wines in 2011, but it shows that the year can't be as good as the minister tells us.

Through adding acidity the balance of the wines will be better again. Max allowance is 1,5g/l in Must and 2,5g/l in wine.

I'm sorry for my bad translations. I can notice that since I live in Austria I don't have much to do with the English language.

Full german text by weinkenner.de :
Also doch: Per Ausnahmeerlass der Landesregierungen dürfen Winzer in fast allen Anbaugebieten Deutschlands in 2011 nun das tun, was sie spanischen, italienischen und südfranzösischen Winzern immer vorgeworfen haben: den Mosten und Weinen Säure hinzuzufügen. Die frühe Reife der Trauben hat die natürlichen Säurewerte in 2011 in den Keller sausen lassen. Erstmals war 2003 das Verbot der „Azidifizierung“ ausgesetzt worden.

09.09.2011 - Noch am 5. September hatte Bundeslandwirtschaftsministerin Ilse Aigner von einem „hervorragenden“ Weinjahrgang: Der 2011er habe „das Potenzial zu einem guten beziehungsweise sehr guten Jahrgang“, sagte sie beim Start der fränkischen Weinlese in Erlenbach am Main.

Wäre es wirklich so, hätten die Landesregierungen in Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen, Bayern und Baden-Württemberg nicht zur gleichen Zeit Ausnahmeverordnungen erlassen, die das Verbot der künstlichen Säuerung des Weins für dieses Jahr aufheben. Die ersten 2011er Moste, die in den Kellern gären, weisen nämlich Säurewerte von unter 4 g/l auf – so niedrig wie zuletzt 2003. In diesem Jahr war zum ersten Mal das Säuerungsverbot für deutsche Weine aufgehoben worden, „um die mikrobiologische Stabilität der Weine sicherzustellen“. Zum zweiten Mal wurde die Säuerung in 2009 erlaubt.
Vernünftige Maßnahme

Die Maßnahme ist vernünftig, zeigt aber, dass 2011 nicht der hervorragende Jahrgang sein kann, von der die Ministerin spricht. So hoch wie die Säuren 2010 lagen (der überwiegende Teil der Weine musste in Deutschland entsäuert werden), so niedrig liegen sie aufgrund der besonderen Witterungsbedingungen in diesem Jahr. Ohne Säure aber fehlt den Weinen der Nerv. Sie altern schnell und entwickeln unerwünschte Aromen.

Durch den Zusatz von Wein- beziehungsweise Milchsäure zu Most oder Wein kann das biologische Gleichgewicht wieder hergestellt werden. Erlaubt sind maximal 1,5 g/l im Most und 2,5 g/l im Wein.

Das Pikante an den Ausnahmeverordnungen ist, dass der deutsche Weinbau jahrelang verächtlich nach Südeuropa geschaut hat, wo aufgrund der warmen Witterung teilweise jedes Jahr gesäuert werden muss. Dort ist die Aufsäuerung von Gesetz wegen erlaubt. Inzwischen aber herrschen in Mitteleuropa teilweise ähnliche Witterungsbedingungen, so dass in bestimmten Jahren auch hier eine „Azifidizierung“ notwendig ist. Da das Hinzufügen von Säure zum Wein in Deutschland und anderen nördlichen Weinbauländern verboten ist, bedarf es hier eines förmlichen Aufhebungserlasses.

Hello Wick,

I personally prefer smaller, higher acid vintages like 2010 or 2008, but I wouldn’t write-off 2011.

We harvested some Müller-Thurgau yesterday at 6,5 g/l compared to 8 last year (in that freakishly high acid 2010 vintage) and Morio Muskat even higher. There may be a crossing or two coming in at 4 g/l on loam soil after a heavy rain, but the classic varieties aren’t yet harvested –Riesling, Spätburgunder, Silvaner, Weißburgunder even Gewürtraminer are still far too acidic to enjoy from tasting grapes. It is just too early to predict how the Riesling will come out because so much of the greatness of that grape is determined by the interplay between fruit and acid. But I think it is safe to say that in the Pfalz at least, the Riesling will lean a little more Alsatian than usual and it should be a very fine Pinot Noir vintage.

2011 is closer to 2009 than 2003 for the reasons stated in this thread:

http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40985&sid=6e40485459f42f04068b161259a01fa8

Cheers,
Bill

Vintners in the Saar expressed some concern over a warm September. Given the temperatures right now, the concern may be well founded. 2011 is not 2003, but it could turn worse than 2009. How is the dager of rot in the Pfalz?

Peter

Thanks to all for the info.

Bill - I'm surprised that you are growing Morio-Muskat, which has pretty much fallen out of favor with most quality conscious producers. I know that Lingenfelder bottled one as part of a "critter label" range, but suspect that the grapes may not be estate grown in that case. Anyway, you must see something with Morio-Muskat that I have completely missed up to now, and I'd be interested to know what you are doing with it.

How is the dager of rot in the Pfalz?

Peter

It is definitely a problem for some vineyards and some varieties. Over-cropping, poor drainage, high fruit-set, bad shoot positioning, thin-skinned varieties and lack of leaf-thinning are major culprits. It's funny though, I've seen some organic vineyards that were immaculate with zero rot while the neighboring conventional vineyards were rampant with botrytis. Too much added nitrogen coupled with too much water means burst-berries.

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks to all for the info.

Bill - I'm surprised that you are growing Morio-Muskat, which has pretty much fallen out of favor with most quality conscious producers. I know that Lingenfelder bottled one as part of a "critter label" range, but suspect that the grapes may not be estate grown in that case. Anyway, you must see something with Morio-Muskat that I have completely missed up to now, and I'd be interested to know what you are doing with it.

Hi Andrew,

We are of the same mind with Morio-Muskat. It is a horrible aberration of the species and I passionately campaign against its continued survival. The problem is that there are a lot of people (old-timers mostly) who really like the wine, but aren't willing to pay much money for it. So it gets planted in the worst vineyards -often clay or loam which retains too much water. Morio isn't very profitable, so you need to push the yield up, and save on labor costs to make it worthwhile, and it has very thin skin; all of which contribute to rot. The grapes ripen early and are very aromatic, so the wasps go to town eating them up which leaves them open to vinegar contamination. Both 2010 and 2011 were botrytis nightmares for this grape. We lost half of the fruit to rot this year and had to do over 100 hours of hand harvesting for half a hectare. We have 25 year old vines that are due to be ripped up soon. Theoretically, it does make a pleasantly aromatic wine which goes down nicely with Leberwurst, but there are so many better aroma-varieties to choose from in the Pfalz (like Gewürztraminer, Muskateller, Scheurebe, Viognier.) There are now about 80 different varieties being grown in the Pfalz. The vast majority are unnecessary from a quality standpoint.

Cheers,
Bill