2009 was a vintage of high expectations in Germany. The favourable weather, naturally low yield and excellent harvest conditions combined to generate another excellent year in our stellar decade, after 2007, 2005, 2002 and 2001. My repeated tastings earlier this spring were ones of excitement and consistently high quality. So the stakes were really high when I embarked on the Erste Lage Sneak Preview tasting organised in Wiesbaden by the VDP association of wine estates. From the nearly 400 wines on offer I tasted 170 Rieslings over two days. These wines are the equivalent of grand cru bottlings and are essentially the very best of German dry white wine.
In brief, I was not disappointed. The overall level is very high. What’s really interesting about 2009 is that it’s a ripe year with abundant and expressive fruit (that’s the difference to 2008, which I criticised last year – perhaps slightly too harshly – for being green and mean) but it also pretty high acidity, which gives the wines brilliance and tension and will help them age longer than the 2007s and 2005s. It’s a rare combination to have so much vibrancy with so much ripe fruit, and it’s the real excitement of 2009.
I have liked many of the Rieslings I’ve tried but one region that has really shone is the tiny Nahe. Always high on any connoisseur’s list, it has surpassed itself this year with a long list of outstanding wines from such estates as Kruger-Rumpf (a superb Kapellenberg), Dönnhoff (I’ve not always been thrilled by the dry wines of this sweet wine master but the Hermannshöhle as well as the cheaper Dellchen left nothing to be desired), Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich.
The Rheingau has been a bit mixed with definite highs such a Johannishof’s Berg Rottland, Robert Weil, Jakob Jung and Josef Spreitzer, but also some relative disappointments, and I’ve been generally underwhelmed by the Palatinate where many wines were atypically green and fruitless. These two regions failing to take full advantage of the vintage, it’s the Rheinhessen, often an underdog, who I think takes second place. Among the many good wines were the young Wagner-Stempel (especially the Heerkretz) and a tremendous performance from well-established (and fully organic) Wittmann that could well be the best collection of the vintage.
 |
| Wine of the vintage?
There are least three dozen wines I would like to own and drink both in the short and long term. It’s all good news provided your banker likes Riesling too; at between 16 and 40€ per bottle these are wines are hardly for everyday enjoyment.
|
Hi, Do you have any experiences with the new (2009-er) Heymann-Löwenstein and Clemens Busch rieslings?
Hi Drbarta
I have tasted dry 2009s from Heymann-Löwenstein, they are of course very young, but I think it will be a lovely vintage to drink soon. I thought the Stolzenberg was outstanding for what it is while the Röttgen and the various Uhlens are very tight, on the rich side but the balance is spectacular and I found the sugar well integrated. I need to retaste these.
I visited Clemens Busch in late August. The dry wines were not bottled and while a sample of the Marienburg Rothenpfad looked very exciting I’d rather hold my judgment until I taste these from bottle.The sweet Busch wines are spectacular and I spent quite some cash at the winery. All 10 wines were excellent but I’d single out the Kabinett (best buy @ 12.50EUR), the Spatlese Goldkapsel and among the Auslesen, the Fahrlay. While Heymann-Löwenstein’s tasted in line with his excellent 2007s and 2008s, I thought 2009 was by a margin better than anything I have ever tasted at Busch. Happy drinking!