Weingut Ratzenberger Steeger St. Jost Riesling Grosses Gewachs, Mittelrhein, Germany

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The Ratzenberger 2009 Steeger St. Jost Riesling Grosses Gewachs was – as usual for this wine – not bottled until the beginning of September. (This year, the VDP allowed it to be shown via a cask sample at the Berlin presentations which in the first week of each September represent the coming-out party for the vintage’s Grosse Gewachse.) Apricot with its kernel; lemon; sage; and pine pitch inform a pungent, somewhat reductive nose. The palate impression here is firm yet juicy, dominated in strikingly Muscat-like fashion by apricot, lemon oil, and herbs, and possessed of a streak of salt so prominent it practically won’t die-away, and left me salivating helplessly. Hand in hand with this salinity goes a deep sense of extract sweetness despite analytical dryness. Yet at the same time there is an almost blazing brightness. I suspect this will be well worth following for 10-12 years, and that it will also probably long since have become more expressive than it was when I tasted it, a mere two weeks after bottling. Although this comes from some of the estate’s oldest, lowest-yielding vines and tiniest-berried selections as well as an ostensibly top site, it managed to stay just below 13% alcohol, presumably a tribute to the genetic material of this selection, though in part also due to conscious effort on the Ratzenbergers’ part to manage pruning and canopy so as to promote ripe flavors at moderate levels of grape sugar. There are, incidentally, around 2,500 bottles of this, which is nowadays at the high end for production of a Ratzenberger Grosses Gewachs. The two Jochen Ratzenbergers began picking early in October and were done by the end of that month, with – to the extent that I could assess them – consistently fine results. The collection included only a single botrytis wine, a Wolfshohle Auslese that had received some special press recognition in Germany very early, on account of which the father-son team claimed not to have even a single bottle to show me. What was to have been this year’s Bacharacher Posten Spatlese halbtrocken resolutely stopped fermenting with 30 grams of residual sugar; and I can’t offer a note on the results, because some Swiss merchant had bought every last bottle from Ratzenbergers. The 180 liters of Ratzenberger 2009 Kloster Furstental Eiswein had not nearly finished fermenting when I tasted it, but even in its leesy, cloudy, and still-active state it was clear that this would become an impressively concentrated libation. (It started life at 210 Oechsle and at the steady fermentative tempo which it had exhibited through September, was expected to officially become wine by last Christmas – though when it would be deemed “finished” was anybody’s guess.) Speaking of which, Ratzenbergers have just taken over some additional acreage in the Kloster Furstental, which in future might result in other single-vineyard bottlings from that site. “We couldn’t take all of the acreage that was offered,” relates the younger Jochen Ratzenberger, “but we took what we could handle. We want to do our part to see that this amazing steep site remains planted.” The absence of suggested retail pricing for many Ratzenberger wines I review could, I decided, use some explanation. By arrangement with their importers – as a survey of the U.S. marketplace confirms – only their lightest-weight wines are released by the Ratzenbergers in the year following their bottling (and even then, not their sweeter Kabinett from the St. Jost). But as wines with bottle age are released, Spatlesen have tended lately to sell in the $30 retail range; Auslesen and Grosse Gewachse in the $45-50 retail range, confirming Ratzenberger Rieslings as superb values.Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644

The 2008 Steeger St. Jost Riesling Grosses Gewachs – like its Spatlese trocken counterpart – was slow to finish fermenting and bottled soon after, in August. (When the concept of Grosses Gewachs was introduced, many of those wines were labeled “Spatlese trocken,” yet many estates – either to hedge their bets vis-a-vis the new category or to maximize stylistic diversity – bottled a non-Grosses Gewachs Spatlese trocken in parallel. Today, Ratzenbergers are among the few growers who still do this, and the Mittelrhein among the only branches of the VDP to even permit it.) Grapefruit and orange with their zests are tinged with salt for a pungent and invigorating display, and despite this wines enhanced (12.5%) alcoholic weight and textural sense of lees enrichment vis-a-vis its Spatlese trocken counterpart, it boasts considerable refreshing primary fruit juiciness, and finishes with real grip and sappy persistence. The Spatlese trocken – from younger vines and 2-3 rather than 1-2 clusters per vine – is airier, more open, dynamic, buoyant, and charming, not only today but – I suspect – over the 10-12 years during which one might expect to follow them both. When you taste a collection like this year’s from the two Jochen Ratzenbergers, you have to wonder why their wines’ consistent quality; track record for aging; and frequently stellar performances do not make this one of the most talked-about estates in Germany. (Maybe I shouldn’t wish that on us!) In fact, they are quite well-respected at home, but I think there is a certain snobbishness that rebounds against even the best Mittelrhein Riesling because this region’s precious half-timbered villages and crenellated slopes spell “tourist country” to most German wine lovers.Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644

The 2007 Steeger St. Jost Riesling Grosses Gewachs reached 13% alcohol, but is heat-free, and benefits from having stopped at the upper end of residual sugar for its luxury-trocken category. Pear and pear pit are prominent here just as in the corresponding Spatlese trocken, and the aroma and palate presence are dramatically intense. But thanks in part to judicious residual sugar and sheer extract this is a beautifully well-rounded Riesling. Bitter-sweet, satiny, and sumptuous, it finishes long on pear and raw almond tinged with salt and crushed stone. Rivetingly pure and refined, this Riesling is likely to be worth following for at least a decade. Jochen Ratzenberger Jr. expressed delight with his 2007s, and even though I’m straining to recollect a vintage with which he wasn’t pleased, the truth is, he and his father comprise one of the most consistently high-performance teams in German viticulture, and their 2007 collection is consistently impressive. Both of the Ratzenbergers’ 2007 vintage Grosse Gewachse – in what has been fairly typical behavior – finished fermenting only in mid-August, and were immediately bottled with barely enough time to appear at the annual Berlin Presentation of Germany’s collective wines in this genreImported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644