Last night I brought along a bottle of 2007 Maison Pierre Overnoy (Emmanuel Houillon) Chardonnay from the Jura region to my friend Stefan’s place to watch the Champions League final between Bayern and Inter. It was purchased by a wine-maker friend of ours at the domaine. The wine already had an orange color and an oxidized taste—a far cry from the excellent 2001 (clear, crisp, and clean) and the very good ’04, which Dany Bertin-Denis of Les Enfants Rouge once decanted and poured alongside the Savagnin. In fact, I even preferred the more opulent 2006 Chardonnay from Overnoy to the ’07. Fortunately, we had other wines to drink, including a newly bottled 2008 Pinot Noir from Günther Steinmetz. This has only 12% alcohol and is quite closed down after bottling, but so impressive. I’ve always been critical of Steinmetz’s Pinot Noirs, but his 2007s marked a change in style. And the 2008 Pinots might be his best ever.

Today, I’m taking the train from Trier to Winningen to partake in Knebel’s 2009 vintage presentation.

Below is our vintage 2009 summary for the Mosel-Saar region:

A frosty January was followed by a warm April and an early budbreak. In June, many areas of the Mosel region had an uneven and long flowering, resulting in tiny shot berries (often good for quality), but reducing yields. This was due to strong rains and a drop in temperatures followed by mild humid conditions with fears of peronospora (downy mildew), which affected Riesling in certain communes of the Middle Mosel. By September, it became drier and warmer, ideal for the grapes’ ripening (especially old vines with their deeper roots in the steep slate slopes), leading up to an early harvest in mid-October under sunny skies and cool nights. Most vintners, who were selective with multiple passes in the vineyards, picked at ideal ripeness levels, despite fears of rot, and finished by the beginning of November before the rains came. Botrytis was minimal. The healthy Riesling grapes had marked aromatics and the subsequent fermenting musts were remarkably fruity. The vintage has more similarities with 2005 than 2008. The latter is a leaner, classic year with pronounced acidity, and the 2009s have more fruitiness from the start. On the Saar, there was frost in October, and only a band of sites nearer the river were unaffected and kept their leaves.  Nonetheless, the best Saar Rieslings and certain wines of the Mosel, often from side valleys, have a noticeable mineral tension, between fruit and acidity. It’s indeed an excellent vintage.

Photo: Harvesters climbing up Peter Lauer’s site in Schonfels on the Saar, one of the few vineyards in the area that kept its leaves after the October 2009 frost.

Harvesters at Schonfels on the Saar. Photograph from Florian Lauer.

Florian Lauer of Weingut Peter Lauer had some additional 2009 harvest facts that I’ve translated below:

• Must weights mostly between 90° and under 100° Oechsle.
• Acidities pleasantly stable at higher ripeness levels (9.5 to 11.0 g/l); we don’t need to acidify, as in other wine regions (e.g., the Pfalz).
• Grapes very healthy; little botrytis, when then clean and dry.
• Ripe, dried raisins and berries, ideal for BA and TBA.
• Young vines inferior because of a lack of water in September.
• Old vines very good—since longer roots, enough water.
• Oct. 20 frost of minus 4.5 °C froze the leaves in less well-situated vineyards.
• “Saarfeilser” one of the only sites on the Saar that had green leaves, hence great ripeness.
• Early frost could result in a lack of reserves in the coming vintage, because vines assimilate nutrients from the leaves. Already one day after the frost, there were no more leaves on the vines this year.
• We’re not producing any Eiswein! I don’t like Eiswein and prefer a fine BA instead.

After pointing out Weingut Peter Lauer’s harvest report to the wine critic David Schildknecht, he kindly translated the text himself and let me post it on our blog:

FLORIAN & PETER LAUER (WEINGUT PETER LAUER, AYL) WRITE: [and you can see their photos and the original, version of this report here]

The Saar Brings in a Fantastic 2009 Harvest

Since mid-September, our Riesling grapes in the steep slate slopes have been ripening under absolutely ideal conditions. The weather during the late months of ripening (September and October) was a critical determinant of the health, concentration, and aromas of the grapes, which are being harvested now in October, and into November.

The berries are very tiny and the clusters loose—thanks to our having divided them in summer. (This consists of cutting the individual bunch in the middle, precisely at the spot where otherwise unfavorable early botrytis appears and leads to unripe rot.)

The dry first half of October gave us top cuvées of quality comparable to the 1999s or 2005s. In the upper levels [of ripeness] this vintage leaves no wish unfulfilled: From Spät- and Auslese through BA and TBA (Trockenbeerenauslese with well over 200 degrees Oechsle) with terrific interplay [of flavors] and endless nervosité [Spannung—never have found an English word to convey this, literally meaning tension] between fruit and mineral-crystalline Saar acidty, everything is present that makes up [great] Riesling.

The dry September made it difficult for our newly-planted and young vines, and led to premature ripeness. By contrast, our many parcels with old vines—with their long, deep roots—were ideally suited for the dry autumn. Here, one tastes in the fresh must the energy and expressivity of the vintage [:] tension [English in original].

Stefan Steinmetz in his Unimog during the 2008 harvest. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

On October 30, Stefan Steinmetz at Weingut Günther Steinmetz had this to report about the 2009 vintage:

Here are a few facts from autumn: for the Pinot varieties [Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris] we had yields of 20 hl/ha, thus very low. Qualities [must weights] range from 100° to 108° Oechsle. For Riesling we had yields of 40 hl/ha, also very low. This doesn’t seem to be, for us at least, only due to [vine] disease (peronospora), but mostly from the vintage, because we had for Riesling no losses from peronospora [a common vine disease that occurs in warm, humid conditions, also known as downy mildew].

Qualities range so far from 85° to 108° Oechsle for all the vineyards that have been harvested up until now. In the main sites [predominantly Brauneberger Juffer] we have only begun to harvest in the last two days. [Wintricher] Geierslay had 94° Oechsle for healthy grapes; those affected by botrytis were about 107°. Yields here were 20 hl/ha, likewise extremely low. The section with [vines trained on] wooden stakes we will leave hanging to the end for absolute ripeness. (For the old vines in Veldenz and Mülheim we selected pure healthy grape bunches with 93° and 94° Oechsle.)

In the Juffer, we’re picking today the Devon [Stefan's special dry-tasting cuvée from the former site called Hasenläufer, below Kammer, at the foot of the Brauneberger hillside] that has around 95° Oechsle from what we measured. The botrytized grapes were 98° to 106° Oechsle up to now.

Conclusion: this year there is very little quantity with high quality. The percentage of botrytis is minimal, hence we will produce less sweet and instead more trocken and feinherb wines.

Matthias Knebel in his cellar in the village of Winningen. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

At Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel the main harvest is winding down. The average must weights this past week were around 95° Oechsle. For example, their old-vine parcel in Sternberg, a former site within today’s Winninger Brückstück, had 104° Oechsle.

As an aside, according to Joachim Krieger’s Terrassenkultur an der Untermosel, the highly-esteemed and original Brückstück vineyard became part of Röttgen in 1912. In turn, the authorities re-named the neighboring “Im Geisen” with the name Brückstück. As if this were not confusing enough, in 1971, the newly-designated Brückstück (i.e., “Im Geisen”) also became part of Röttgen. So, today’s Brückstück is mainly the well-situated Sternberg, a reputable, old-named section of a steep hillside with terraces that adjoins the enlarged Röttgen’s. In other words, the authorites expanded Röttgen to the south, towards the village of Winningen, and this comprises both the original Brückstück and Im Geisen vineyards.

Getting back to the harvest, Matthias Knebel, who has taken over more of the winemaking at the domaine, had this to say about the vintage:

In order to clarify one thing first: we’re very pleased with the harvest. Even if yields are described everywhere as being very low, we should nevertheless be happy about the quality of the grapes. It was reported that rot was prevalent in many areas, and one has to say that there was no bad rot—neither sour rot nor acetification. The grapes possessed from the outset of the harvest marked aromatics. The musts all tasted remarkably fruity, and those from the partly drier parcels have herbal aromas. All in all, it looks like fruitier and, again, somewhat robuster wines than 2008. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ve done our job, now the [wild] yeasts are doing theirs!

Ulli Stein in his cellar in the village of Bullay. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

This might look and feel like a repeat of the last post, but it’s not. Even the photo of Ulli Stein before his 30-hl barrel is different. Anyway, the weather here has been just fantastic over the last couple of weeks with plenty of sunshine and cool weather. The main Riesling harvest has been underway.

Ulli explained:

Until the beginning of this week (with the exception of Himmelreich), we were still in pre-selection mode and harvested very good quality, amongst others Blauschiefer with 85° Oechsle and 9.3 g/l acidity—ideal. In Himmelreich, we purposely picked Kabinett and thereby picked once again an elegant “light style” by a combination of two harvest dates (October 14 and 21) with 80° and 86° Oechsle and 9.8 and 9.0 g/l acidity, respectively. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we harvested in Hölle and Klosterkammer wonderful grapes with 98° and 100° Oechsle and 9.5 and 9.0 g/l acidity, respectively. With Pinot Noir, we were finished by Oct. 15, totally healthy and 102° Oechsle. At the moment I am paying close attention to the acidity and will plan the rest of the harvest according to that. In Calmont, we’re done, an elegant Qualitätswein with 88° and a Spätlese with 97° Oechsle, but only 8.2 g/l acidity. We’ll have to give the latter a little Palmberg for support. The grapes are unbelievable and still hanging in Palmberg after the pre-selection: golden-yellow, healthy with a little noble rot, physiologically ripe and with a still racy acidity of 9.0 to 9.5 g/l. In Himmelreich, half the grapes of a similar quality are still hanging for vin de paille. In this year, Palmberg shows, for example, in comparison to Calmont or [Neefer] Frauenberg its absolute singularity and superiority—the old vines dig deep and have from the water source above [the vineyard] no water stress. In Calmont and Frauenberg, it was once again too dry. All in all, it’s been a grandiose autumn, and I’ll proceed in the cellar accordingly.

Ulli Stein in his cellar. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

After having beautiful autumn weather in September and early October, the last few days have been rainy here in Trier. Although today it warmed up some with no rain. The main Riesling harvest has yet to begin. Most grapes will be picked over the next several weeks, however.

At Weingut Stein, Ulli wrote:

As late as yesterday [Sunday] the weather was fantastic, and the grapes ripened accordingly. Last week we did a complete pre-selection [a first passage through certain single vineyards] of Riesling grape bunches in Hölle, Klosterkammer, and Himmelreich. (Everything that was not optimal was cut from the vines.) Must weights were between 82° and 85° Oechsle. The grapes taste really good and will go in our table wine or in Blauschiefer. On Saturday, we picked the first Pinot Noir in Himmelreich with a good physiological ripeness and 102° Oechsle. Unfortunately, it’s supposed to rain in the next three days, still not a disaster, but increased risks of rot. We have to keep—and that is already foreseeable—a watchful eye on the acidity. Until now the grape ripening is similar to 2007, but it can quickly go in the direction of 2006  [i.e., with high levels of botrytis]. We’re going to harvest Pinot Noir in the coming weeks and then in Himmelreich and Palmberg those physiologically ripe and crisp Riesling grapes that don’t have Oechsle levels too high for the racy and lean Kabinett trocken and feinherb. All in all, I’m still very pleased and also optimistic.

Please note the following MWM tasting events, if you happen to be in NYC:

On Saturday, October 10, from 4 to 7pm, my colleague, Dan Melia, will be pouring 10 of our selections at Chambers Street Wines.

On the following Thursday, October 15, from 5:30 to 7:30pm, Crush Wine & Spirits will be hosting a big 2008 German Vintage Tasting, which includes a line-up of 27 wines, including nine from our portfolio. Join Dan as he pours our selections alongside other top wines from Germany.

Today, Gernot Kollmann, cellar master at Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel, told me that the 2008s have lower must weights than the past three vintages, so alcohol levels will be relatively low across the board. This will be a welcome relief for those seeking tamer wines for early and easy drinking. For example, von den Terrassen Riesling trocken will have no more than 12%, probably closer to 11% alcohol. He did on average no more than 5 to 6 hours of skin contact after a light crushing. Extract levels are good from the rain during the summer. So, the wines will have good depth and complexity. Acidity was high, and the extra hang time was good for getting it lower. Ripeness levels, however, stayed more or less the same. Gray rot was less a problem this vintage (unlike in 2000), but botrytis didn’t concentrate the grapes enough to get a lot of wines with noble rot. On the contrary, the autumnal season resulted in stagnating must weights. Sorting at the vine and in the cellar was important. The dry Riesling Spätlese from Uhlen or Röttgen will be scarce in 2008. Gernot felt the grapes in Röttgen had more aromatics this year, but it’s still too early to tell. A batch of Uhlen reached 98° Oechsle. There will be more entry-level than high-end wines.

At the moment I’m updating and reworking the catalog for 2009.

Ulli Stein and his pickers ended the harvest under azure skies on Tuesday, November 4. They picked the grapes for his Strohwein, which were already shriveling, and fully ripe ones at 96° Oechsle in his Palmberg-Terrassen vineyard in St. Aldegund. The latter will be for a dry Spätlese this vintage. The musts are fermenting quietly and efficiently in the cellar.

For the 2008 vintage, Ulli plans to make a liter bottle of dry Riesling called “Der Traubenflüsterer” (grape whisperer). This is his entry-level wine for simple, everyday drinking. Then, he’ll have two different Riesling called Blauschiefer (blue slate), one is fermented off-dry, the other dry . The latter was last year a special selection made for Polaner Selections. Doug Polaner, who tasted barrel samples of each in Paris with us, selected the drier version for import. It reminds me and others of La Pepière Muscadet for its charming crisp, low-alcohol (10.5%) style. This wine comes from diverse, steep sites with predominantly blue slate. Over half is from the higher terraces of the aforementioned Palmberg-Terrassen. Another key contributor is a site called Himmelreich also in St. Aldegund. It’s an old-vine, easterly sloping vineyard at the foot of the hillside with blue slate in a relatively warm micro-climate due to its proximity to one of the Mosel’s dams. The other top sites blended into Blauschiefer trocken include Calmont in the village of Bremm (the steepest vineyard in Europe) and Frauenberg in Neef.

Ulli is also planning to make a dry-fermented Kabinett at under 10% alcohol. The grapes were picked just at physiological ripeness. He wants this to be akin to a great Vinho Verde.

Along with his dry Riesling called Domwein from the Vogteiberg site in Senheim, Ulli will also have a two-star dry Riesling from the Hölle vineyard in Alf (below his home) and from Calmont. He felt the latter didn’t justify the designation Spätlese trocken this year. Nonetheless, neither wine will be chaptalized.

For me, all these wines represent a traditional and overlooked style of the Mosel; that is natural dry-fermented, light-bodied Riesling raised mostly in old barrels on their fine lees with late and low sulphur additions, no additives, and minimal handling. Moreover, they retain the brisk, mineral character that makes the Mosel unique. Some dismiss this style as simple or lacking balance or pedigree as if the Mosel should have high residual sugar and, if dry, then ripe and full bodied. In my opinion, few producers have mastered, much less attempted to make this dry style with marked acidity. Others that come to mind include two famous names in the Ruwer Valley: Maximin Grünhaus (von Schubert), sadly few of his dry Riesling reach the States, and in a more reductive style, I also think of Karthäuserhof (Tyrell).

Ulli wrote the following summary that I translated below:

The 2008 autumn was very variable. Dry, sunny periods were often interrupted by days of rain. October began with nice weather, but acidity levels were too high, physiological ripeness (grape aroma and brown seeds) wasn’t there, and Oechsle levels were too low. The early harvests that took place in many areas resulted in lighter wines. In mid-October we started with the preliminary harvest. During dry weather spells in the latter half of October, we harvested several vineyards, and we’re very pleased with the results. The quality of the entry-level wines (dry-fermented liter and Blauschiefer) as well as the mid- to high-end segment (i.e., dry-fermented Kabinett, two-star quality wines, and Domwein) is at the level of last year. In the top category there are simply fewer specialties: no Auslesen, no dry Calmont Spätlese, or four-star Alfer Hölle. Only in Palmberg-Terrassen, on October 30, were we able to harvest fully ripe Riesling with slight botrytis at 96° Oechsle. According to the government cellar authorities, that is to this point the best result in the area between Cochem and Pünderich. We still have very healthy grapes that remain hanging in Palmberg and Himmelreich after multiple passes through the vineyards. We hope to produce at least one specialty wine (such as Strohwein and Auslese) from these grapes. For those wine estates that harvested at the right moment, 2008 can still be classified as a good vintage, with fruity wines and racy acidity, despite a difficult autumn.

While I’m in NYC, Ulli Stein wrote me an email that the weather the last few days has been poor. Botrytis has increased due to this. The entry-level wines are already in the cellar and the grapes for the mid- to high-end range are still hanging. The forecast is good for the next few days. They’ll harvest the Domwein and the two-star Alfer Hölle. If it stays dry, then the must weights will develop quickly. With enough acidity, this will make for good wines. They still have 10 days to harvest.

Today is drizzling with temperatures in the 50s (Celsius). Yesterday was misty, too. The weather conditions will increase the incidence of grapes affected by botrytis, hence raising ripeness levels. Ulli said the acidity remains high, however.

Ulli Stein said that they will continue harvesting (by hand, of course) Riesling bunches from diverse plots for his table wines. In addition, they pick grape bunches, often lower down on the vine, that could be more easily susceptible to rot. The Oechsle is ca. 75° with acidity at about 11.5 g/l. Last week, for example, the pickers hiked through the higher terraces of St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen selecting individual bunches and leaving the best to hang till the end of October to gain even more ripeness (Oechsle should be around 95°; acidity at 10.0 g/l) for a Riesling Spätlese trocken.

The team of harvesters will also begin to select the Pinot bunches affected by rot. This will go into a rosé. The pickers will then harvest Riesling from various parcels consisting of blue-slate soils for his wine called Blauschiefer.

Next week the main harvest begins. The prior passages through the vineyards help to ensure the hang time of healthy grapes—vital, Ulli said, for those wanting this year to make selective top-quality wines. The vintage will have good acidity and lighter wines than in 2006 or 2007. Since flowering in June was without problems, there are mostly large berries, almost no millerandange. Though the tiny, seedless berries make for great wines.

Ulli plans to do a longer skin contact this vintage due to the relatively high-acid structures. Instead of 6 to 8 hours as in previous years, he will do a pre-fermentation maceration of ca. 12 hours. This helps to lower some of the acidity and bring more aromatics, fullness, and fruit into the wines. Because the grapes are so healthy, he will put more emphasis on wild rather than pure culture yeasts. He uses a neutral strain called SIHA 7 for his simple liter and entry-level wines, or to help a certain barrel of wine after having begun spontaneously to finish off its sugars. Otherwise, he usually lets the wines ferment at their own pace on their fine lees with no fining or additives.

Dan Melia, a friend and the ex-manager at Prune Restaurant in NYC, who spent the first few days after his arrival at my flat in Trier, will begin today picking grapes at Stein’s until Friday. Afterward he will go to Steinmetz for another week of harvesting and helping in the cellar followed by Busch for two more weeks.

Ulli Stein wrote me today that his Riesling looks very good: no botrytis and healthy grapes. The Oechsle (a scale for measuring grape ripeness) is 6-8 degrees lower than the same time last year. The acidity is ca. 2.5 g/l higher; that is, we can expect racy, somewhat lighter wines in the mid- to high-quality range. At the moment, the aromatics are still somewhat weak, but are only beginning to develop fully.

His Pinot Noir bunches have some botrytis. If the rain stops in one or two days and it doesn’t become warmer, then everything should be fine. If not, there will be problems with gray rot. His 2007 Pinot from cask is a beauty and a wine we want to export down the road. Ulli is one of the pioneers for bringing back Pinot to the Mosel in the late 1980s. I especially like his 2005 and 2002.

All in all, he is optimistic, but it will not be as “simple” a vintage as last year. They will begin on Monday with a careful pre-selection of their Pinot and Riesling. The first picked Pinot will be used for rosé. They will make several passes through the vineyards leaving the best, healthy bunches to hang towards the end of October.

The weather had been perfect over the last few weeks: cool, dry, and sunny; now the forecast is for rain. Stefan Steinmetz of Weingut Günther Steinmetz told me that there is good ripeness in his various plots around Brauneberg in the Middle Mosel and the main Riesling harvest should commence towards late October depending, of course, on the weather conditions. He has botrytis, too. Gray mold, however, is affecting a number of his Pinot Noir bunches.

Florian Lauer of Weingut Peter Lauer wrote me that his Riesling grapes look fine in his parcels around Ayl on the Saar, but he wishes it were warmer and drier this week. His harvest will begin around mid-October.