“People want more flavor, and don’t want any thin wines,” declares Schmitges in explicating his as usual chaptalized and over-13% alcohol 2009 Riesling Grauschiefer, whose style, he alleges, “works, provided the minerality is properly bound-up in the wine. And here we have 80% from the (high-altitude, rocky)Erdener Herrenberg the remainder is from Treppchen, so that the alcohol doesn’t come to the fore. I need the sense of density and fullness.” So much for the approximate style of this by now best-selling, Schmitges cuvee, and his justification of that style. I find the slightly bitter intensity of peach, persimmon, and lime with their pits and rinds impressively long-finishing and the glossy, glycerin-rich texture here helps lend a sense of buffering. Nor is something recognizably stony missing. The overall effect is low-toned and for my taste a bit austere and somber. I’d plan on drinking this over the next couple of years. “My father was going crazy in October,” says Andreas Schmitges, because contrary to normal practice “we were harvesting Monday through Thursday and then just working in the cellar or the vinotec over the weekend, all under beautiful skies, while he’s shuffling his feet and thinking ‘Hey, folks, at some point this lovely weather is going to be over.’ But our forecasters were reliable and the weather held as long as we needed,” he claimed, which in his case was until November 10. Schmitges relates that – in part under the influence of Mosel practices in a bygone era; in part based on “intensive exchange with Austrian colleagues,notably Peter Veyder-Malberg, over the last five years” – he now gives his musts destined for dry wines increasing skin contact and opportunity to oxidize before the onset of fermentations, which he allows to rise higher in temperature than is usual today on the Mosel. He also acknowledges a recognition that accumulation of degrees Oechsle can nowadays be problematic, for which reason his approach to soil management (including deep plowing and carefully-targeted greening); pruning; picking (“paying careful attention to acid-retention but also ripeness of acids”); and vinification (including spontaneous fermentation and longer lees contact) is reflecting increasing watchfulness lest wines become “too lush” or noticeably high in alcohol.Importers include: Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463; Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312; Magellan Wine Imports, Centennial, CO (720) 272-6544
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