Le blog du Grand Jury

J'avais demandé à Martin Zwick, rencontré lors de notre session du GJE à Malartic-Lagravière, un billet sur les grands crus allemands qu'on va connaître en détail au Davos avec Joël Payne et le Prinz Michael Salm zu Salm, Président des VDP.

Martin made a presentation of this category of wine last week-end.

In english.

2008 German Grand Cru Riesling

Last week-end the "Berlin Riesling Cup" took place in the capital of Germany, as a host I presented the best "Grosses Gewächs"/Grand Cru Riesling of the vintage 2008 to a Jury of wine-journalists and amateurs . This means 36 Rieslings were served blind in 2er flights and several wines were presented for the first time in public. 

Definition of "Grosses Gewächs"

“There are 950,000 bottles of Grosses Gewächs produced in 2009. This means 2% of all VDP-produced bottles and 7% of the sales volume. Compared to 2008 the production declined with 10% (in 2008: 1.1 million bottles) but the average price per bottle raised from Euro 23.00 in 2008 to Euro 24.17 in 2009. More than 50% of the Grosses Gewächs are still sold in Germany, but slowly there is a market for dry German wines formed especially in the USA. UK is still a very difficult market but in Scandinavia we recognize big success with Grosses Gewächs.”

Literally it means great growth. Within the VDP classification, it indicates a dry wine of Erste Lage/Grand Cru Status and the wines must comply with the following rules:

Maximum fixed residual sugar level set at 9g/l
From the best vineyards of Germany
Choice of grape variety is restricted
Maximum yield: 50 hl/ha
Minimum must weight: equivalent to Spätlese
Selective harvesting by hand
Vineyards, cellars and wines are subject to additional strict inspections and examinations
All bottling will bear the Erste Lage logo a stylized eagle with a cluster of grapes
First release of white wines: 1st September one year after the harvest; red wines: 1st September two years after the harvest

Weather conditions in 2008
First, it is a cool climate vintage. "A rather cool and wet spring (especially April, which had more than 80 mm rainfall) led to a somewhat delayed budburst, but at the same time created important water reserves in the soil.  The months of May and June were almost as warm as in mid-summer and growth proceeded at an accelerated pace. The good weather accelerated the development of the vines enormously so that the flowering was one week earlier than the long-term average. July was also very warm and the fast growth of the plants continued - at that time we were worried that it might be too dry, especially for the younger vines. The weather in August was increasingly damp and cool; ripeness slowed considerably; September remained cool. Ripening proceeded very slowly. Cold temperatures at night led to little reduction of acidity in the berries. Happily, October was a very good month especially for the Riesling grapes. With only 12 mm of rainfall (we were far below average, which is 50 mm) and daytime temperatures of around 10–15 °C, this period was very important for the physiological ripening process of the Riesling grapes. So the perfect ripeness came – but very late in november."  Klaus Peter Keller&Philipp Wittmann, winemakers from Rheinhessen

Back to the "Berlin Riesling Cup", the clear winner was 2008 Forster "Kirchenstück" GG from the estate Dr. Bürklin-Wolf  in the region Pfalz. Breathtaking Riesling with a brilliant structure and insane complex. Voilà, the podium:

08 Dr. Bürklin-Wolf "Kirchenstück" GG, Pfalz

08 Schäfer-Fröhlich "Felseneck" GG, Nahe

08 Kühling-Gillot "Rothenberg" GG, Rheinhessen

Following "Halenberg" GG from Schäfer-Fröhlich, "Morstein" GG from the estate Wittmann in the region Rheinhessen, "Kastanienbusch" GG from the estate Rebholz in the region Pfalz and "Morstein" GG from the estate Keller also Rheinhessen.

So, the key for a successfull vintage in 2008 was a very late harvest. The Rieslings are puristic, straightforward, racy with an expressive acidity&minerality.  Be careful,  the 08s are not everbody´s darling "Schmusekätzchen", especially due to the vivid acidity and they are not such easy accessible "süffig" like last year. But no doubt, at Top level the 08s are even better than the 07s and have a very good cellar potential.