Georg Breuer Rauenthal Estate Riesling Qba Trocken, Rheingau, Germany

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The Breuers 2009 Riesling Rauenthal Estate displays site-typical florality – here iris and lily-of-the-valley – that marries felicitously with the fresh lemon and lime that render this wine highly refreshing and treble in tone. Bitter hints of fruit pit, pungent black tea, and citrus rind make for piquant persistence, and there is also an undertone of sheer wet stone, but none of this, fortunately, significantly diminishes the wines sense of primary juiciness. This ought to be fun to follow for 3-5 years. 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 Breuers’ 2008 Rauenthal Estate Riesling smells intriguingly and alluringly of iris, rowan, and sea breezes. A Chablis-like expression of saline, crustacean savor along with inner-mouth floral perfume and refreshing red currant and grapefruit make for a mouth-watering middle, and this finishes with a wonderful combination of invigoration and succulence. Would that more of the youthful Breuer Rieslings would permit themselves this unbuttoned and generous a comportment, which I doubt will in any way handicap the wine’s potential to satisfy for half a dozen or more years. 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 2007 Rauenthal Estate Riesling – while brightly acidic in its expression of lime and grapefruit – offers sharp focus of flavors without painfully sharp finishing acidity. Suggestions of flowers and wet stones typical for this village are plainly in view. This may well acquire more harmony as it evolves in bottle, but I would advise checking on it again sometime in 2010. 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

The 2006 Rauenthal Estate Riesling displays intriguing musky, truffly, faintly smoky aromas; exhibits pungency of smoke and citrus zest, sweet floral inner-mouth perfume, and an oily-rich texture; and finishes a bit austerely with salinity, chalkiness, persistent smokiness, and a sensation of meat, all characteristics reminiscent of Chablis. (By contrast, the Rudesheim Estate Riesling was somewhat severe in its phenolics and could certainly not be credited with charm.) Heinrich Breuer and Hermann Schmoranz began their Riesling harvest October 6, and finished in record time. Selective picking and watchful decantation and selection of the musts, rather than the use of treatments, was the approach taken here to the problematic health and botrytis of the vintage. The results included a 40% reduction in volume over their recent average.Imported by Classical Wines, Seattle, WA; tel. (206) 547-0255