Germany 2010

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SteveTimko

Steve Timko
Pardon me if this has been discussed before, I haven't seen it.
Does any white from Germany in 2010 seem cellar worthy? Is it all drink young?
I have not read many good things about the vintage. I have tasted nothing from it yet.
Of course, I have no cellar space, either.
 
Lyle Fass raved about 2010 in his blog. Also, isn't 2010 an extremely high acid vintage? Wouldn't that bode well for aging, at least from the top producers?
 
However, Lyle tweeted today:

Lyle Fass
At 2010 terry theise tasting and tasting all these deacidified wines is downright depressing. So much good material to waste. #zombiewines

(hi Lyle!)
 
My understanding is that it wasn't just high acid, it was acid that came in a weird way so it doesn't mesh well with the other flavors. Thiese wrote on his blog that you have a lot of winemakers who have never had to deacidify wines before trying it for the first time. (At least I think it was Thiese.)
 
originally posted by Salil Benegal:
originally posted by SteveTimko:
Does any white from Germany in 2010 seem cellar worthy? Is it all drink young?
Click to expand...
Yup. It's the first vintage that can be completely generalized!
Click to expand...

How German of them to organize things so thoroughly. Swiss wannabees!
 
For the convenience of the consumer, 2010 German Riesling has been divided into 3 distinct categories.

Grosses Säure (all regions except Rheingau)

Erstes Säure (Rheingau)

Qualitatswein mit Säure (all regions)

In order to qualify for Grosses Säure, the wines must have between 0 and 9 g/l of residual sugar and also between 9.75 and 13.62 g/l of acidity. The wines must come from a VDP estate, except in vintages following a World Cup year. In addition the wines can only be tasted by Martin Zwick until after August 17th of the year following harvest.

The requirements for Erstes Säure are the same except that residual sugar may reach 10.275 g/l if there is a corresponding increase of 4.98% in the acidity level.

No requirements are set for Qualitatswein mit Säure, as nobody in their right minds actually drinks wines that might actually taste balanced. I mean that's crazy talk.
 
Fine vintage, different from 2008 in that dry extract was not as high, and it shows in shriller profiles here and there (TA and pH not radically different). Saar and Ruwer not easy to taste now, some of the non-southwest/south facing slopes produced awkward wines (whereas in warmer years they did very well), and one might do better to look to plains south of the Mosel. Some of the drier wines are painful and probably require time, but they don't have the bottled sunshine quality so characteristic of e.g. 2004.

I'm MSR focused, so for your Nahe/Rheingau/Pfalz/Franken/Rheinhessen/Baden fix, you'll have to look elsewhere. And given my affiliations, I cannot be specific about growers. Further, vintage generalisations in the MSR are becoming dangerously close to caricatures, given the continual experimentation and consequent diversity. Have fun.
 
hindenburg1.jpg
 
i am definitely a german neophyte, but selectively i like the acid and the balance a lot. not all producers made wonderful wines today, but '10 diel riesling kabinett pittermannchen was absolutely fucking amazing...
 
google for terry theise and you'll find your way to the skurnik website and you can read terry's detailed and informative impressions on the 2010 vintage.
 
I swung by the Rudi tasting in San Diego today and agree that its tough to make sweeping generalizations about 2010. For my taste, Lyle is spot on with respect to Schloss Lieser and Schafer Frohlich. Both line-ups were through the roof good. Felseneck spatlese is a wine nobody will ever regret owning. I was also really impressed with Zilliken's wines which were extraordinarily elegant; although there was a big step up from the estate wines to the pradikat. Karthauserhsof, which can sometimes be a little too "etherial" for my pedestrian tastes had no such problems in 2010. Yes the acids were high - but there was a ton of extract in support.

Finally, I did grab a taste of the Rebholz Ganz Horn GG. The wine is terribly closed in on itself now but there is a ton of wine in that bottle. If it stays in balance, it will be epic in 10 + years.

Overall, I came to the tasting expecting to encounter a lot of shrill wines. That wasn't my experience at all. At least from Schloss Lieser, Schafer Frohlich, Zilliken and Karthauserhof, everything tasted balanced, with plenty of extract to buffer the acids.

Anyway, those were just my impressions.
 
Yixin, have you tried loosen's 2010s? I'd like your views on those wines please (as much specificity as you will provide). thanks
 
Theise's report doesn't make the vintage sound very disorderly...or perhaps I should say very Mark Davis-y:

Re: 2010 German Riesling -

From the catalog: "But with that caveat, I’m willing to state that 2010 is the most concentrated vintage I’ve ever tasted in Germany. Forget “vinosity;” these babies are as dense as paperweights. Extracts are through the roof (Kabinetts with mid-30s readings not uncommon) and tasting them compared to other “normal” vintages was like doing your usual exercises, only under water. You had to almost force your palate through these wines, pushing aside massive thickets of sheer material, pure substance."

and

"But what’s perhaps missing from 2010 is a class of decent ordinary wines. 2010s are either sensational or repellent, with little in between. There’s a lot of gnarly botrytis, when it wasn’t managed in vineyards or cellars. One producer even performed a carbon fining to remove it, a practice I’d have supposed to be too intrusive, yet the results are convincing. "

In addition to all the de-acidification...

Concentration, extract, botrytis, and de-acidification...Not my thing :)

-mark
 
These are my notes after 2 tastings in London (if anyone cares):

- it looks to me a very difficult vintage to read at this stage. Possibly the most difficult since 2002 and 2003.
- very high acidity and high extract/oechsle means to me a vintage of extremes:
(1) to me what's the most important thing in Riesling is balance and equilibrium and here I see a significant chance for deraling. 2010 is a balancing act which does not suit Kabinetts at all (and some Spatleses) but it's better at higher praedikats where you have enough "mass" to keep forces in check
(2) ageing is also in question but who's got more experience swears by these wines' ageability
(3) IMHO this is clearly not a Mittel Mosel vintage where balance and equilibrium are paramount (check the 2009s). No one mentioned a Mittle Mosel producer as the best in show (several 2nd, 3rd place but no top spot). Btw 2009s are retracting for their forwardness and becoming more beautiful and mineral as Prum's wines showe d(even correcting for the Prum factor)
(4) producers used to work with higher acidity or cooler sites did very well (Keller and Von Schubert come to mind)
- Zilliken clearly ahead of the pack for me, Karthauserhof unreadable, Schonleber without much character, Haag better than last week but not a vintage for thim, Keller superb across the board with the Spatlese even better than the Auslese (how do you get that peach ?) though prices are nuts, Scheafer extremely restrianed but I will buy, Von Schubert's lovely I preferred the more restrained #42 and #24 over #37 and #72, Schloos Lieser worse than last week though the GK and LGK are special, Vollenweider also very nice, Donnhoff is not my taste but the Niederhauser was excellent, Selbach-Oster to me was a bit difficult to read, piesporter goldtropfchen also was not the ideal site in 2010

Good luck!

F.
 
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