Fascinating counterpoint plays out on the nose and palate of the 2009 Maximin Grunhaus Riesling Herrenberg Kabinett feinherb, with sharply pungent mettle and cooling mint; tart currant and lusciously ripe kiwi; black tea and coriander playing off against one another. There is lift and juicy satisfaction all the way to a lip-smacking finish that calls forth the next infectious sip. This merely 10.5% alcohol yet for all practical purposes dry wine will prove deliciously versatile over the next dozen or more years. Proprietor Carl von Schubert and cellarmaster and vineyard manager Stefan Kraml continue to make strides in bringing this great estate back to its long-standing exemplary form, albeit incorporating some stylistic innovations (for more about which consult in particular my reports in issues 183 and 187). "We picked from between the 18th of October and the 6th of November," reports von Schubert, "and although there was intermittent rain, the weather only really turned worse after we had finished." He points out that photographs from earlier eras at Grunhaus routinely show vines entirely denuded of foliage by the time they were harvested, just the way they looked this year, and while the early October frost aggravated him at the time, he did not think in retrospect that it had any negative repercussions. One probable effect of those barren branches was relative paucity of botrytis, and von Schubert opined that only at the level of his fuder-numbered Auslesen – and then only by dint of extreme selectivity of bunches and partial bunches – did noble rot become a significant factor. A third fuder-numbered Auslese – other than the two canvassed in the present report – represents, in Carl von Schubert's words, "the attempt to vinify a distinctly botrytized and rigorously selected Auslese in barrique" and will only be bottled and presented for tasting next year. It's degree of sweetness? "Only a bit more than the 'Superior,'" he says! There is also a Beerenauslese and a Trockenbeerenauslese which had not been bottled and which von Schubert was similarly not eager to show yet when I visited in September. Other than for nobly sweet wines, fermentations here are normally finished by the end of December and this year, says von Schubert, was no exception; even while relying entirely on ambient yeasts he had more than enough casks go to legal dryness to satisfy his needs, some even ending up as few as two grams residual sugar and as high as 13.5% in alcohol (although these were blended-out with other, lighter lots). In each instance where I was made aware of multiple bottlings which required reference to an A.P. # in order to disambiguate, note that I tasted only one of those bottlings. Incidentally, a new fuder-vinified 2009 "Schloss Grunhaus" Pinot Blanc struck me as too-dominated by wood, and its 13% alcohol precluded much sense of levity or refreshment. Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424

The 2007 Maximin Grunhaus Riesling Herrenberg Kabinett feinherb makes use of its very discreet residual sugar to set-off its red currant, melon, and grapefruit, while maintaining lovely delicacy and refinement as well as a satisfyingly juicy finish. This is the sort of Grunhaus Riesling that has been known to remain fascinating for as long as a couple of decades. Sadly, there is some question whether the category “Kabinett feinherb” will be perpetuated at the estate, since an attempt to pare-down the number of bottlings (in itself understandable) continues. I wrote about vintages 2005 and 2006 in Carl von Schubert’s and cellar master and vineyard manager Stefan Kraml’s hands as representing a return to the traditional Grunhaus excellence, because their wines performed quite well despite manifest vintage limitations. In 2007, the weather was far more cooperative, and the von Schubert collection – harvested over a 20 day period, leisurely compared with the pressures of 2006 – is the finest from any of the “big five” growers who collectively practically exhaust the Ruwer’s remaining top-class acreage. For the most part, they illustrate impeccable balance and clarity, and at their best reach the exhilarating level one would a dozen or more years ago have routinely anticipated at this address under favorable meteorological circumstances. Grunhaus has moved to practicing almost entirely spontaneous fermentations, which von Schubert sees as tending to moderate acidity but also “to achieve a less efficient yield of alcohol” from a given level of sugar, “which is an advantage nowadays just as it was a disadvantage in earlier times.” He was, incidentally, honestly taken-aback a decade or so ago – and was not the only estate owner to experience such a realization – to learn that the ancient, slow-growing, slate-rooted oaks being harvested from his considerable forest and sold at rapidly ascending prices were ultimately destined for prestigious French barrel-makers. The esteemed Nahe-based cooper Horsch has since been commissioned to gradually construct barrels for the Grunhaus from ancient Grunhauser Wald oaks, and von Schubert said he welcomes a time when wood will dominate over tanks in his cellar, although not only cost factors but also the sensitivity of Riesling to new wood preclude a pace more rapid than two or three new casks per year.Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel (918) 622-0424