Weingut Max Ferd. Richter Mulheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein, Mosel, Germany

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Given the long association of this frozen genre with the Richter estate, it comes as less surprise than it would elsewhere that there is a 2010 Muhlheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein. Like its immediate sibling, this was picked December 3 and then sorted on tables in the press house because conditions were so cold that there was no risk of the berries thawing while that keen-eyed, frigid-fingered work was performed. Quince and apricot preserves are shot through with fresh lemon on a viscous, quite creamy yet simultaneously sharp palate, for an impression that shares much with that of a Tokaji Esszencia. Almost tooth-jarring acidity goes hand in hand with surprising lushness of texture; a honeyed overlay; and a focused sense of pit fruit and citrus tinged with cinnamon and crushed stone. The finish here positively reverberates as well as refreshes, and if it sends a chill up your spine, surely that’s all in the spirit of the genre! I would not be surprised to see this perform gloriously for 15-25 years, but as with most the genre I would keep careful tabs on its evolution so as to avoid disappointment. By analysis this represents an amazing near 16 grams of acidity; 290 grams or residual sugar; and just 7% alcohol. “The last time I had acid levels as high as in 2010,” reports Dirk Richter, “was in 1980, and I don’t need to tell you that vintage was a disaster even by then-prevailing standards. What’s more, that was the last time I had de-acidified. Even in challenging years like 1981, patience at harvest and the right upbringing of the young wines – maceration, later bottling, encouraging tartrate precipitation, etc. – sufficed to deal with high acids. In many cases this year, we double-salt de-acidified twice, in must and then again in wine – after having done nothing for thirty years; I couldn’t believe it was happening! But it was the only way to remove a sufficient share of the malic. The finished wines are still plenty high in acidity, but I did not want to repeat my experience from 1990, in which I bottled wines with as much 11 grams acid. The second year, they started to taste sour, and that never left them even as their textures eventually creamed-up. I think that two years from now many de-acidified wines will start fatiguing whereas our best will be coming into their own.” In 2010, needless to say, the grapes were essentially ripe – indeed all met the admittedly weak legal minimum for Auslese – but as Richter notes “I had to keep revisiting parcels again and again taking just what had properly ripened because the condition of bunches was so heterogeneous.” Precautionary levels of sulfur combined with the naturally low pH levels of 2010 material are, he speculates, the reason why he ended up having to yeast most of his musts this year to achieve satisfactory fermentation. Richter reports having managed to pick-out 20 and 30 liters respectively of B.A. and T.B.A. but at such pathetically small levels he felt it made more sense to blend them back selectively into the vintage’s Auslesen. “I’m laying everything on the table,” he noted with his usual candor when we began tasting, “some are quite good, some are meager, but I’ll let you judge for yourself.”Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland,?OH; tel. (216) 861-6800

Reflecting botrytis-free bunches picked ahead of his “regular” Eiswein, Richter’s “two-star” 2009 Muhlheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein** boasts higher acidity yet greater harmony – and, unsurprisingly, greater purity – than its lesser, day-younger sibling. Pear nectar shot through with fresh lemon, white currant, and honey inform a polished, glycerin-rich palate, and the confectionary and efficacious acidity here check one another’s temptations toward excess. This penetrating, persistent Eiswein may well gain complexity over the coming decade, though like most of its practically inevitably wild card genre, it should be monitored if one is thinking about holding it for longer. While yields were down significantly in Muhlheim and Brauneberg – particularly due to peronospora – and sorting almost universally required, Dirk Richter reports that his overall 2009 crop was above- average volume, though he acknowledges that due to the need for relatively intensive spraying against fungal pests, both its ripening and the evolution of the resulting wines were retarded. Kabinetts were not picked until the last days of October; acid levels of most wines are well above vintage average; there was little Auslese; and some wines (Kabinetts, as it happens!) had not yet bottled when I visited in September. Richer – whose Rieslings from top sites continue to be bargain-priced – has just taken over a section of Erdener Treppchen that is in the family of his cellarmaster, who has no heirs. While there were still stocks of some 2008 vintage Rieslings available when I visited in September, the 2009 Richter Pinot Blanc had already been sold out without remainder, so I did not get chance to taste that of-late often promising bottling.Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861-6800

Glazed, caramelized pineapple and white raisin point toward the botrytis element in Richter’s December 18 2009 Muhlheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein, while bright fresh lemon and sharp, musky radish underscore its status as a product of hard-frozen fruit. But these two aspects are a bit at odds at least for now, and the acidity here doesn’t exactly translate into refreshment. That’s said, one can’t argue with the sheer if rather confectionary finish of this assertive Eiswein. Those with a gambler’s spirit might want to try cautiously cellaring some. While yields were down significantly in Muhlheim and Brauneberg – particularly due to peronospora – and sorting almost universally required, Dirk Richter reports that his overall 2009 crop was above- average volume, though he acknowledges that due to the need for relatively intensive spraying against fungal pests, both its ripening and the evolution of the resulting wines were retarded. Kabinetts were not picked until the last days of October; acid levels of most wines are well above vintage average; there was little Auslese; and some wines (Kabinetts, as it happens!) had not yet bottled when I visited in September. Richer – whose Rieslings from top sites continue to be bargain-priced – has just taken over a section of Erdener Treppchen that is in the family of his cellarmaster, who has no heirs. While there were still stocks of some 2008 vintage Rieslings available when I visited in September, the 2009 Richter Pinot Blanc had already been sold out without remainder, so I did not get chance to taste that of-late often promising bottling.Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861-6800

Richter’s 2007 Muhlheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein – harvested on the first of the pre-Christmas Eiswein days – displays some of the same dark hues as this year’s Sonnenlay Aulese, with date, white raisin, and caramel tones recognizable as effects of botrytis, but not of frost. Volatile, spirituous notes in the nose are more Eiswein-typical, if not entirely in a positive sense. Charred toasted nuts, candied citrus rind, and ginger lend bitter sweet and lightly sizzling notes to the finish, whose sheer penetration superficial, icing-like sweetness no doubt owe much to the freezing of these grapes. But this gaudy and undeniably impressive wine is far from classic Eiswein and I would be inclined to drink it young as a dessert wine (if one could afford it) rather than speculate on its long-term evolution. Dirk Richter is an historian of the Mosel as well as one of the region’s foremost growers, and he claims that on five occasions in the eleven years between and including the epochal vintages of 1911 and 1921, flowering on the Mosel took place in May ... but then not again until 2007. He started picking already in early October, but only as a means of thinning (“pre-harvesting”) his Brauneberg vineyards, and the resultant Kabinett is rather green in flavor. Harvest did not begin in earnest here until mid-October, and save for the two T.B.A.s that he painstakingly collected, Richter insists there was scarcely any botrytis. Interesting, the yields from Richter’s Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyards – his only remaining ungrafted vines – were the highest this year that he has ever experienced, and the wines are by no means disappointing (although Auslese was not possible). The grip exhibited by his dry-tasting wines may in part come from the skin contact Richter gives most of them, in part to buffer their acids. Still, as he puts it, “with the intense minerality, strong acidity, and very low pH of Mosel Riesling, some residual sugar is needed. And here, with feinherb-as-trocken, that need is borne out quite clearly, and the wine tastes dry, and people drink it as ‘dry’.” What’s more, lower alcohol helps these “dry” Riesling dance. If feinherb (often as high here as 25 grams in residual sugar) works on Richter’s German customers, halleluiah! For anybody else, these feinherb Kabinetts should be no-brainers, especially at his prices. Richer shares my enthusiasm for the undeservedly obscure and misunderstood Pinot Blanc (a.k.a. Wiesser Burgunder), and is in process of doubling his acreage and planning to produce some Sekt from it as wellImporter: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland,?OH; tel. (216) 861-6800