GERMANY 2016 TERRY THEISE ESTATE SELECTIONS THEISE MANIFESTO Beauty is more important than impact. Harmony is more important than intensity. The whole of any wine must always be more than the sum of its parts. Distinctiveness is more important than conventional prettiness. Soul is more important than anything, and soul is expressed as a trinity of family, soil and artisanality. Lots of wines, many of them good wines, let you taste the noise. But only the best let you taste the silence. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 THE RHEINGAU 55 The Shit you Gotta Understand... 2 Spreitzer 56 Old Site-Names Return 2 Künstler 59 THE 2015 VINTAGE 3 Weingut Goldatzel 62 Whither Auslese? 5 George Breuer 65 Highlights and Superlatives 5 A Glance Back At 2014 7 MITTELRHEIN 67 German Bubbles 7 Weingart 68 Feinherb 7 How I Select 8 MOSEL 70 What’s With The Plusses? 8 Selbach-Oster 71 A Few Words About Tasting Notes 8 J&H Selbach Regionals 76 Notes On My “SOS” Scale 9 Meulenhof/Erben Justen Ehlen 77 Regarding Organics 9 Alfred Merkelbach 79 Sommelier Alert 10 Joh. Jos. Christoffel 82 Willi Schaefer 84 PFALZ 11 A.J. Adam 87 Müller-Catoir 12 Reuscher-Haart 90 von Winning 15 Carl Loewen 92 Eugen Müller 19 Herbert Meßmer 22 SAAR 95 Theo & Regine Minges 25 Vols 96 Kurt Darting 28 RHEINHESSEN 31 Strub 32 Geil 34 Gysler 37 NAHE 39 Dönnhoff 40 Jakob Schneider 43 Hexamer 46 Kruger-Rumpf 49 Schlossgut Diel 52 INTRODUCTION “I am crazy about Riesling. I don’t order wrong with them. They have very poor estate in Germany’s Nahe valley—remark it all the time because not everybody gets taste. That doesn’t make them bad peo- to the effect that “We need to get rid of the crazy about it. I don’t know why. I don’t ple, but it creates a bad (or unfortunate) notion that Riesling is great because of its know what’s wrong with these people.” thing; poor taste decides the market for acidity.” My (much) younger self thought the greatest wine grape of them all. But the old man had three screws loose. Now – PETE WELLS, The New York Times why isn’t Riesling cherished as I think I know he was right. Acidity is inherent to it ought to be? There are many reasons, Riesling, but that doesn’t make it a fetish “As an utter Riesling nut myself, I have chief among them that drinkers have object. Too much acidity is nasty. If you come to the conclusion that Riesling decided that any wine with sweetness can taste it blatantly there’s probably too remains a minority sport, an obsession is infra dig. A wine that shows a fruit or much of it, or too little of something else, for acid freaks with fairly advanced flower-driven aroma must be sweet, or it such as fruit or extract. adult tastes.” wouldn’t smell that way, they suppose. And then there are the Germans, and But, <sigh>, well OK. More for us. their wine culture. I am not going to hash – ANNE KREBIEHL MW When have I ever had “popular” taste? out the hoary dry-versus-sweet thing yet Would I even recognize myself if I did? again. I am going to make one simple Returning from Germany again, now Still, I often think that people who love point, a point I find to be self-evident. for the 31st time, I’m more convinced Riesling could be a little more helpful. Riesling is very rare among white-wine than ever of two things: Riesling is the For example, why does Ms. Krebiehl grapes in that it makes beautiful wines at greatest grape from which wine—of ei- harp on acidity as she does? The cari- every point along the continuum of dry ther color—is made, and Germany is the cature of Riesling lovers as “acid freaks” to sweet. Every point. But the Germans place from which the most miraculous tends to ghetto-ize us as people with themselves tend to bi-polarize their and maddening Rieslings come. truly geeky taste who ought properly to wines into either very dry or very sweet, Let me answer Pete Wells’ implied be marginalized. Many years ago I heard ignoring the many points of beauty and question—what’s wrong with… people Hans Crusius—Peter Crusius’ father and usefulness in between. Last Fall the Wine (who don’t like Riesling). Here’s what’s the proprietor of the legendary Crusius Advocate’s Stephan Reinhardt wrote me: 2016 Germany � Introduction 1 “Terry, I think there is just one really prob- The law, written before global warming, any case. If the classified site’s wine has lematic issue: wines that are neither dry mandated ripeness as the only factor in SWEETNESS then it falls into the Prä- nor sweet but something in between (the quality. A line was drawn between chap- dikatswein quality-ladder. “neither fish nor meat” wines). These wines talized and unchaptalized wines. The lat- The Nahe estate Schlossgut Diel is a (with residual sweetness of, say, 10-20+ g/l) ter were assumed to be made from grapes classic example. They produce a Grosses are absolutely delicious for themselves and ripe enough to go it alone. There was a Gewächs called Goldloch which is seri- with food (and the sort we’d choose when kind of ladder of increasing ripeness, and ous and dry. They also produce Kabinett, we share a bottle one day). They also reflect as you climbed it you passed Kabinett, Spätlese and (usually but not inevita- their origins and are probably the most Spätlese, Auslese and finally the dessert bly) Auslese from the same site under natural wines (when the fermentation wines, Beerenauslese (a.k.a. BA), Trock- its full name Dorhsheimer Goldloch, is not forced) but they don’t have a lobby: enbeerenauslese (TBA) and Eiswein. which means “Goldloch of Dorsheim.” they don’t have the Trocken brand and they Spätlese was riper than Kabinett, All of these wines carry the little insig- don’t wear a Prädikat which are more and and Auslese was riper than Spätlese, and nia for classified sites on the label. So, if more reserved for nothing but—often ex- because we associate riper things with you want to be decently professional, I cessively—sweet wines. That’s stupid mar- sweeter things—think strawberries or would argue this is all you need to know. keting with respect to the nature of wine, peaches; the riper they are the sweeter There’s a lot more you could learn, were to nature at all (though clever with respect they are—an Auslese was usually sweeter you so inclined, but I promise that if you to the needs of certain markets). than a Spätlese, which in turn was usually master what I’ve outlined here, you’ll be But you are right: there is something sweeter than a Kabinett. This is why the equipped to handle 90% of what Germany wrong with the knee-jerk German demand “Kabinett” category has remained so pop- throws at you. for dry wines or rather the bearish attitude ular; it is presumed to be the least sweet against wines that are not dry. The result of the top category of wines. It also costs is that top wines with sugar levels of 10-30 the least. OLD SITE-NAMES RETURN grams have become very rare. And that’s a That category of unchaptalized wines shame indeed.” is now called “Prädikatswein.” The word Old-timers will recall that the 1971 I am fully aware that any statement appears on the label. That is the old sys- German wine law collapsed what were beginning with words like “The Ger- tem in essence, and vestiges of it are still some 20,000 single-vineyard names into mans….” is misleadingly categorical, yet used. There’s more—isn’t there always?— an ostensibly more manageable 6,000. with that caveat I also observe their signal but that’s for German-Wine 202. In so doing they wreaked quite a bit of blindness to that which is most unique A parallel system has arisen, thanks mischief, blotting out a large number of (and therefore most precious) about to the activities of a grower’s association useful important names and retaining or their Rieslings, as well as their tendency called the VDP. It is a group of superior adding a lot of garbage-names that were to dither around the fringes of salience. producers. Most of its members are in the either unimportant or misleading. Considering the basic struggle to give top rank, though there are top-rank grow- In many parts of Europe, every piece Riesling the stature it deserves, the Ger- ers who choose not to join, for reasons of land has a name. It’s not “block 37” or man wine culture isn’t helping. For all its of their own. The VDP has recast German whatever; it has a name, and having a good intentions, it pisses in the pool. wine along a Burgundian model. Pend- name, it has an identity, and having an We who love the wines, or we who’d ing an entire European Union re-draft of identity it has a validity and an existence like to love the wines, need a quick way each country’s wine laws (sure to entail as real as that of the person who owns or through. a nightmare), the VDP’s innovations are tills it. quasi-officially accepted. In Germany these are called Cataster VDP’s system is simple.