This, of course, as you know already, is the vintage of the century, everywhere.  I mean, the kids can wait another year for college, right?  Daddy needs wine.

In Germany, it started unassumingly enough.  Most reports described a normal summer, perhaps a bit cool, certainly drier than they’d have wished (as the vineyards are still not fully recovered from the drought of 2003), though vegetation was, once again, “ahead of schedule.”  Expectations, to hear it told, were moderate.  Johannes Selbach says, “2005 already looked like it was going to be a good—if not very good—vintage in late August.  But then, week by week, under blue, sunny skies, the vines made astounding, but quiet progress, to the point the wild boar knew before us how tasty the grapes already were.”

But we’re ahead of ourselves, and if there’s a lesson to learn about 2005 it is that this is a heterogeneous vintage, a puzzle of which no two pieces are identically shaped.

It is shaped almost entirely by micro-climactic factors.  Generally the further south you go, the more problematic the harvest, as several heavy rainstorms led to a rampant invasion of oogies, which is the technical term for “things we don’t want to see in the vineyards and on the grapes.”  Canopy trimming seemed to be decisive in the southerly regions, and I heard several stories about creative bunch-thinning, including one grower who cut away the centers of each bunch so that air would flow to the tops and bottoms.  Where rot was in play, the harvest was spectacularly rapid, competing in as little as two weeks, and ending by mid-October.  One needs to detail this vintage region by region, and even village by village in certain cases.  But one thing is certain: the further north one went, the better the results.  And other things being equal, 2005 favored steep slopes.  

Again in Johannes Selbach’s words: 

We only realized that we were dealing with a great vintage to the fullest extent when we had started harvesting.”

The summer was not spectacular, just “normal,” but the weather from August 20th throughout early November was textbook weather for Riesling: long, sunny days with warm but not hot temperatures and nights that cooled off a bit.  The grapes were simmered to ripeness, not cooked—ideal for long hang-time and lots of flavor.  Due to the rather dry year, we experienced smaller sized berries and more loosely packed bunches, particularly in the old vineyards.  Rain in the 2nd week of September spurred the first infections of botrytis on the Mosel, but not on a broad scale and without any problems of gray rot or penicillin.  In fact, foliage and grapes remained astonishingly healthy well into late September, though single berries started developing noble rot.

Almost the entire harvest was done under blue skies and very pleasant, if not too warm, temperatures.  We were glad we have the means to chill the juice since the first days of the harvest saw rather warm grapes.  Days over 70° were frequent and on October 26th we still had a record 77° during the day.  Twice during the harvest we barbecued and ate outside with the vineyard crew, once at the end of October after a day of picking BA and TBA (those memories stick!).

By the letter of the German Wine Law all of our grapes qualified for QmP, only two batches of grapes were Kabinett and everything else was Spätlese and higher. Often, they were much higher.

It was possible to collect shriveled, botrytised berries from day one. And, based on past experience, we did.  It was also easy to make clearly defined runs through the vineyards for different grapes, with or without botrytis and to easily differentiate even within the botrytised grapes.  And, yes, the later in October—better, even—in early November, the more and more beautiful the botrytis.

Johannes’ portrait of a glorious harvest was echoed by nearly everyone along the Mosel, Mittelrhein and Nahe.

And what of the results?

As a rule 2005 is a vintage of generosity and power, not musclebound, but fit, no flab.  If you look at analyses you might wonder whether acids were adequate, but you wouldn’t if you simply tasted the wines.  They are big-bodied beings by German Riesling standards—though far from corpulent—but much of their bodies are taken up with a tactile mineral density and (sometimes) a phenolic muscularity which stands in for acidity-as-such.  One or two people claimed ‘05 was “like a cross of ‘01 and ‘03” which makes a certain sense, though at best ‘05 is better than both earlier vintages.  They are marked by a wonderful solidity, as if you could just as easily eat as drink them.  Yet again, at their frequent best, their mass does not preclude remarkable detail and intricacy.

MOSEL-SAAR-RUWER: With the Nahe, this is the star of 2005.  Many were the growers who told me they couldn’t remember a greater vintage, and in one instance, I agreed.  Comparisons to the Great One of the modern era—1971—were made even by those usually reticent. Though I noted small variations (like those in hand-sewn garments) among producers, the least among them offered strikingly expressive, dense—one dares say majestic—wines, while the greatest of them (keep reading!) offered the single greatest vintage I have ever tasted from any grower anywhere, any time. The “typical” 2005 Mosel is a wine of staggering ripeness and concentration yet still elegant and transparent.  When botrytis occurs it is miraculously clean and almost always integrated perfectly within mineral and fruit.  Even more delightful, 2005 doesn’t whomp the growers with its own character so much as let them express their particular voices with a text such as they have never spoken.  Merkelbach, Schaefer, Loewen: all of them are wonderfully themselves, yet cooking with jet-fuel.

NAHE: Ditto! With no discernible variation between a Hexamer on the upper Nahe and a Kruger-Rumpf on the lower Nahe; it’s fabulous everywhere.  If anything Nahe seems even sleeker than Mosel in ‘05.  Diel thinks it’s the best vintage in his winery’s history. At Dönnhoff all we could do was taste and laugh.

MITTELRHEIN: At times, the wines flirt with over-ripeness, such that Weingart had (even) better results from his Fürstenberg than from the (warmer) Bopparder Hamm. Jost’s wines were generous: gorgeously so at the “Kabinett” level, less striking from Auslese on up. Indeed, one is within one’s rights putting Kabinett in quotes for every 2005 wine bearing its moniker.  Don’t be no such thing as no “Kabinett” in ‘05.

RHEINHESSEN: Very good closer to the Rhine (Geil and Strub) and extraordinary in the hilly hinterlands near the Nahe (Wagner-Stempel, whose wines are essentially Nahe in all but name anyway).  Generous, fruit-driven wines.

PFALZ: This is a true patchwork, You’ve heard the oft-repeated cliché “The next village had rain but not us” (variations abound: maybe the next village didn’t get the needed rain, or it had an infestation of toxic spiders or whatever), but everyone in the Pfalz seems to have enjoyed some crucial advantage over the guy down the road.  From what I tasted; from Bad Dürkheim north, it was a ripe botrytis vintage, though nothing like the catastrophes of 2000 and 1995. In the “classic” Mittelhaardt (south to Neustadt) I’d describe a very good to fine year with isolated peaks of genuinely stellar wines.  The average quality is genial, juicy, forthrightly mineral and animally satisfying.  In the Südpfalz, my two guys had lovely vintages, perhaps even more lacy and sheer than their northern siblings.

One’s own psychology as a taster has to be accounted for.  When all you taste are big ripe wines they become an unreasonable baseline, and you pick nits no one else would notice.  There’s a sense in which you almost can’t believe what you’re tasting; everything can’t possibly be this good, there’s nothing not to like.

Unlike 2003, ‘05 is a fine vintage for grapes like Scheurebe and Muscat; all it does is ratchet their ornery selves up a few notches.  It seems a better vintage than most for the dry wines based on the number I selected, which include some of the best dry Riesling I’ve ever tasted.

If there are “issues” with ‘05—and when are there not issues?—there’s the occasional bit of volatility (none of which made it into this offering) and the more-than-occasional bit of gnarly botrytis in the southerly regions.  There’s also the matter of the short crop, and the paucity of true-Kabinett.  I freely acknowledge that two kinds of drinkers will be cool toward many (not all) ‘05s; those who enjoy light delicate wine such as cool-vintage Kabinett, and those who like an explicit jab of acidity in their Rieslings.  The Kabinett matter is more vexing.  It’s prima-facie ridiculous to buy these big fellas of (often) over 90 degrees Oechsle as “Kabinett,” and it tempts you into thinking “why should I buy Auslese if the Kabinetts are actually Ausleses?”  The answer to that question, by the way, is because the Ausleses are actually Beerenausleses and no matter what you buy you’re getting a two-class upgrade.  But still, seekers of the gauzy German Riesling experience will have to wait till next year, when I am already assured they’ll be produced.

Explicitness doesn’t preclude subtlety, you know.  There is, you might say, subtle subtlety and obvious subtlety, and even when 2005 sings fortissimo it sings a jazz chord of many notes.

Vintage Highlights:

I think I’ll omit the “usual suspects” (Dönnhoff, Catoir, Schaefer) from these groupings lest they dominate them. You already know great estates will have made great wines. Here’s a few things you might not have known.

The Winery Of The Vintage is, with no doubt whatsoever, Selbach-Oster.  I have never experienced such a range of masterpieces, all of them, at every level of ripeness and from every different vineyard.  Indeed I’d place S-O at the top of the heap even with Dönnhoff, et al, included.  I’ll go into detail in Selbach’s text, but in essence: sheesh!

THE WINE OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION IS:

Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese**

THE AUSLESE OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION IS:

Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Burgberg Riesling Auslese

THE SCHEUREBE OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION IS:

Schlossgut Diel Scheurebe Spätlese  (don’t hate me; there’s only 35 cases!)

THE KABINETT OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION IS:

Spreitzer Oestricher Lenchen Riesling Kabinett

THE BIGGEST SURPRISES OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION ARE:

Wagner-Stempel Silvaner Trocken (have I ever tasted better wine from this variety?)

Koehler-Ruprecht Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Spätlese Halbtrocken

Jakoby-Mathy Riesling “Balance” (a masterly recreation of an old style of Mosel wine with barely perceptible, but absolutely, necessary RS)

Ansgar Clüsserath Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spätlese (a majestically powerful and dignified wine from this emerging star)

Hoffman-Simon Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling TBA (in . . . barrique! And it works!)

THE GREATEST CORE-LIST WINES IN THIS COLLECTION ARE:

Kruger-Rumpf Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling Spätlese

Eugen Müller Forster Kirchenstück Riesling Auslese

THE SINGLE GREATEST VALUE IN THIS OFFERING IS:

Strub Niersteiner Riesling Kabinett LITERS

SHORT-LIST FOR ROCK-HEADS:

Dr Deinhard Deidesheimer Kalkofen Riesling Spätlese

Kruger-Rumpf Münsterer Pittersberg Riesling Kabinett

SHORT-LIST FOR FRUIT-HOUNDS

Weingart Schloss Fürstenberg Riesling Spätlese

Leitz Rüdesheimer Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese

SHORT-LIST FOR CHARM-PUPPIES

Gysler Scheurebe Halbtrocken LITERS (just try to resist it!)

Hexamer Schlossböckelheimer In Den Felsen Riesling Spätlese

Schmitt-Wagner Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett

Merkelbach Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese #3

THE TROCKEN WINE OF THE VINTAGE IN THIS COLLECTION IS:

Schlossgut Diel Pittermännchen Grosses Gewächs

As to the matter of dessert-wines, there are a lot of them!  They are mostly very ripe (TBAs all well over 200º Oechsle), and I had the anticipated difficulties marching my poor palate through them.  I have no doubt egregiously underrated many, but what is one to do with dozens of still-cloudy fig syrups?  I tasted for cleanliness (in terms of botrytis) and for clarity and outline; finally for emerging flavors not borne of botrytis.

As always, certain associations recur through my notes.  That’s partly a matter of temporary infatuation following a discovery, like the time I first smelled an infusion of tilleul (linden-blossom) and ah-hah! that’s what I’ve been smelling in all these Rieslings, and “tilleul” appeared in my notes constantly until I got tired of repeating it.  I don’t disavow it, mind you; it’s there, or it might as well be.  This year I caught aloe vera in everything, sorry.  But to the matter at hand.

The “typical” 2005 is a mélange of elements in roughly symmetrical proportions.  Fruit often refers to an heirloom apple fairly common in Europe but only known to insiders and apple-connoisseurs here; the cox-orange pippin.  “Cox-orange” is a common descriptor among German-speaking tasters.  The apple is small and ripens quite late—does this remind you of a certain grape-variety?—and is true royalty among apples.  It has a keen and balanced flavor tilting a little in the white-nectarine direction.  Minerality seems omnipresent as a kind of dense powder dispersed through the wines; it is seldom aggressive or edgy but it’s softly categorical.  Herbal flavors also abound, and this is where the aloe vera comes in.  Sometimes you smell pure wintergreen, sometimes balsam, and sometimes a cool greeny savor like a shady Spring forest.  Finally, 2005s are marked by their nearly absurd length.  We think of a wines “finish” as a little final shimmer which slowly fades, but these ‘05s seem to build stadiums and dams on your palate.  It is hard to taste them quickly.  They don’t so much end as consent to be abandoned; you will be invaded by a profound solidity which afterward you can almost chew.

So, is 2005 the “great” vintage it has been claimed to be?  In the Mosel and Nahe, quite probably yes.  In the Rheingau, plausibly (I only hedge because I only tasted my two guys’ wines) but in the Rheinhessen and Pfalz I wouldn’t go that far.  There, ‘05 is an excellent to remarkable vintage in which certain estates exceeded the norm and made truly great wines, but this is different from proclaiming a “great” vintage.

As regards the Mosel and Nahe then, how great is it?  Potentially an all-time great, and certainly the kind of vintage that only comes along two to three times in one’s drinking life.  It’s a little awkward as regards the “market” but I have a home-made proverb that says The best possible thing will always happen at the worst possible time.  I mean, think about it, the last five vintages:

• 2001: almost uniformly great and classic.
• 2002: nearly as good, and in some regions even better.
• 2003: a grand monumental vintage along lines of ‘76 and ‘59 (but better than both).
• 2004: a “typical, classic” vintage of the kind that would have been a standout in the ‘60s or ‘80s.
• 2005: at best perhaps the very best of them all.

I’m out of space in my cellar too!  But I’ll make room, somehow, somewhere, for a huge mess of the best 2005s.

—Terry Theise