Georg Breuer Berg Rottland Riesling, Rheingau, Germany

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The 2020 Berg Rottland is deep, intense and pure on the nose, with notes of melted stones and ripe, elegant and flinty fruit. Full-bodied, round yet pure and crystalline on the palate, this is an intense yet refined and elegant Berg Rottland that represents the warmth of the vintage and lifted by the power of the terroir, which consists of slate and quartzite soils of this steep and south-facing cru on the first two lower sections of the mountain. 12% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in July 2022.

The 2019 Berg Rottland is clear, pure, intense and flinty on the nose that shows almost iodine notes of crushed stones with ripe and concentrated stone fruits but also stony aromas. More denied than the 2020. Full-bodied and elegant on the palate, this is a crystalline, pure yet powerful, stimulating and tensioned Riesling with fine tannins intermingled with salt and perfectly ripe, intense and elegant fruit. There is sensational moderate 11.5% stated alcohol due to very low yields (15 to 20 hectoliters per hectare). Natural cork. Tasted in July 2022.

The Breuer 2009 Rudesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling mingles gooseberry, white peach, nettle, crushed stone, and pronounced, lip-smacking salinity in a manner that reminds me somewhat of certain Loire Sauvignons or Chablis. This is severely concentrated to the point of palpable extract-richness, quickening tartness, and sizzling pungency and smokiness. Id want to revisit it in a few years to reassess, but for now I would not count on this – impressive though it is – being a wine to hold longer than 5-6 years, lest severity and austerity become its lot. Theresa Breuer underplayed the effects of drought conditions during late summer and early autumn 2009 on the performance of her familys vines in the exposed, rocky Rudesheimer Berg, and, admittedly, there are drip lines in some locations to compensate. But I can easily imagine a connection between that drought and the somewhat peaky acids and strident personalities of many wines in the present collection, and Breuer notes that the slightly lower must weights and consequently lower finished alcohol of several wines probably also reflects at least in part vine stress. (The measured levels of acidity are still lower this year than in the corresponding 2008s.) Picking began already at the end of September and lasted until October 25, under conditions Breuer described as “relatively relaxed.” Incidentally, I re-tasted the top 2008s at this address and would rate the Nonnenberg and Berg Rottland a notch up on my account in issue 187. This is an instance where 2009 is I believe highly unlikely to ever approach the outstanding quality level of its immediate predecessor. (Note: most of the dry-tasting Breuer wines are legally trocken but not labeled as such.)Imported by Classical Wines, Seattle WA 206 547 0255

The Breuer 2008 Rudesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling trocken rises like a salt-crusted wall of stone in the midst of its vineyards. This even smells almost solely of the ocean and of quarry dust, along with hints of citrus zest and fruit pit. It positively tugs at your salivary glands yet almost made me wince it’s so bright, and the finish certainly displays capital-G grip. It needs to tone down – perhaps even short term will prove to have helped – but seems to expect of its owners 5-6 years’ patience before one attempts to enjoy it, at which point I still wonder whether it won’t be far more formidable than loveable. At more than 9,000 man hours including the time spent on intensive selection, Heinrich Breuer says this was one of the most labor-intensive and expensive harvests in the estate’s history. “We have 80 parcels in Rudesheim and are very conscientious about checking each one every couple of days to make sure the acidity doesn’t drop too low, to check the must weights, and to deal with any issues that might arise. We were in fact happy to have gotten around a half a gram more acidity at harvest than in the 2007s,” continues Breuer, who says it was really the phenolics and not the quality of acids or levels of sugar that changed while they picked in the course of October. Reports have reached me of the extent to which the top 2008 vintage Rieslings here are said to have became more harmonious and complex in the course of last autumn, so I may well have underestimated them based on my September tastings. But I was already totally disarmed and amazed by the quality of the several best nobly sweet wines, coming as they do from an estate that treats that genre very much as an afterthought (or, more accurately, as a part of pre-harvest provided noble rot is already there) and from a vintage in which so few such wines were essayed nation-wide.Importer: Classical Wines, Seattle WA; tel. (206) 547-0255

The Breuer 2007 Rudesheimer Beg Rottland Riesling trocken smells of grapefruit zest, cherry pit, hints of mint, and wood smoke, anticipating the relatively sharp and bitter personality that unfolds on the palate. That said, this is so formidably concentrated, almost thick in its mineral-broth like way that it is impossible not to be fascinated and encouraged to take the next sip. The finish here is almost obstreperous. I would be keen to revisit this in a couple of years, though, before I would make any long-term commitment, and friends of athletic leanness, challenging concentration, and vinous dynamics (like yours truly) are bound to be more kindly disposed toward this wine than will others. I was extremely curious to see how the normally early-harvesting Heinrich Breuer and Hermann Schmoranz would approach this vintage in which the overwhelming consensus among growers was that the fruit must – despite its remarkable head start – hang late. But by the time I tasted their collection, it was evident that Rudesheim’s slopes were – depending on one’s view – blessed or cursed by having ripened much earlier and more precipitately than nearly any other German Riesling vineyards. That said, the always lean style of dry Breuer Rieslings shaded a bit too far into the green spectrum in some of this year’s renditions, and no members of this collection (including the one bearing that word on its label!) make concessions to charm. The levels of acidity truly are without precedent in the modern history of the estate (2004 came closest in that regard), levels more appropriate to the formidable single-vineyard nobly sweet wines that Breuer has crafted, and which – despite none exceeding 300 half bottles in production – will be sold half in 2009 (alongside the dry single-vineyard wines) and half at some future date. Breuer, incidentally, avows that it is deceptive to point to increasingly early harvests at his or any other top address solely as indications of climate change, because at least for most of the late 20th century, he insists, yields were much higher, thus demanding longer hang-time.Imported by Classical Wines, Seattle WA 206 547 0255