Weingut Hexamer Quarzit Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Qba, Nahe, Germany

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Fresh lime, peach, apple, and Persian melon lusciously inform the Hexamer 2009 Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Quarzit, whose rather obvious sweetness fits its effusively fruity personality. While this is also amply-endowed in the acid department, I miss quite the bright refreshment or focus – and also the headlined minerality – which “Quarzit” bottlings sometimes (and this year’s dry wines largely) deliver. Still, this is delicious and impeccably balanced, and over the next 7-10 years might well acquire additional nuance. (There are two bottlings of this wine, but as these are of the identical lot and were performed in close temporal proximity, I have left-off reference to A.P.#s.) Harald Hexamer continues to expand his acreage in response to what I can well appreciate are almost irresistible offerings, and the latest round of sell-offs by one of the Nahe’s best-known and once-renowned estates at the beginning of 2011 is I suspect going to test the limits of Hexamer’s ambition and abilities to absorb yet more vineyards. (The number of 2009 vintage wines I have had to reference with A.P. #s due to there being alternate bottlings is in itself testimony to the rapid expansion of this estate.) No one who has followed this young grower over the past decade, though, can accuse him of lacking seriousness, and he has been subjecting his stylistic ideals and his accomplishments to rigorous examination, knowing he must balance the potential value of experimentalism with the need to focus both his attention to individual wines and his stylistic range. These latest results reveal a grower increasingly sure in touch and displaying a defter sense of balance at both the dry and sweet ends of the spectrum. By a considerable margin, they constitute this estate’s most consistently excellent collection in my experience. With the exception of a couple of partial lots of generic dry Riesling, no 2009s were de-acidified, and a majority of the dry wines kicked into spontaneous fermentation, although Hexamer brought cultured yeasts to bear in order to promote dryness. Both an Eiswein and a T.B.A. from the Rheingrafenberg were still fermenting in September and I’ll have to report on those along with Hexamer’s 2010s.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

Several parcels, including a portion of Eisendell, informed the Hexamer 2008 Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Quarzit, which smells delightfully of ripe, fresh pear, quince, and lime. Tasted on the heels of the dry wines here, this demonstrates the advantages of residual sugar given the relatively aggressive acids of the vintage at the trocken level. Ginger and salt tinge the luscious fruit in the finish. This will remain delightful for ten or a dozen years. Harald Hexamer’s crew generally picked with two buckets this year, segregating botrytis fruit at the same time as that for the dry wines was gathered. The results in both genres sometimes lack a bit of refinement. Hexamer performed some pre-fermentative maceration; some de-acidification; and allowed or encouraged some lots to go through malo-lactic conversion, all in an effort to deal with his high 2008 acidities. Incidentally,he has begun installing the large wooden ovals made for him by Hosch from some exceptionally tight-grained old oaks in the estate, but he will be using them for Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris for a time in order to season them before they receive Riesling.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

The Hexamer 2007 Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Quarzit displays yeasty, cheesy fermentative notes that only some time in bottle appears likely to dissipate. Beneath these, though, is the combination typical for this bottling of high-definition fruit (peach and yellow plum here) with high acidity and residual sugar. Suggestions of lily-like floral perfume and an unusual degree of delicacy may reflect the vintage and/or the wine’s spontaneous fermentation. In fact, between it lightness and its accentuated finishing sweetness, I imagined this down near the 8% alcohol range, whereas it turns out to harbor 9.5%. A second lot originally intended to be included here was still (after nearly a year) hung-up in fermentation last I tasted. To the extent the relatively brief track record for this wine is an indication, I believe it will age well – in fact, in this instance, surely improve – over at least a 7-9 year period. Harald Hexamer is still exploring both his style and his recently much-expanded vineyard acreage. The plethora of non-Riesling grapes here (both red and white) – and Hexamer’s free-wheeling experiments with these – are often very popular with his customers, but the time they steal from focus on his line-up of Rieslings (not all of the huge number of which I tasted) might not be to his long-term advantage. (Even the large share of Schlossbockelheimer in den Felsen that Hexamer acquired from the Paul Anheuser estate is planted – in its red sandstone as opposed to porphyric sections – with Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.) Surprisingly, it is Hexamer’s typically expansive range of high-residual sugar and nobly sweet wines that seems to be garnering the most attention for his talents in the German press, but the best of his dry Rieslings continue to be promising, too. A number of the wines this year – and increasingly in vintage 2008 – were permitted to at least begin their fermentations spontaneously, which was sometimes evident in a bit of initial funk or reduction in the nose.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300