The for all intents and purposes dry-tasting 2007 Maximin Grunhaus Riesling Herrenberg Superior exhibits a creamy texture and slightly oily feel in striking contrast with the wines that preceded it in this year’s collection. (For more about the style and name of von Schubert’s Superior – of which around 5,000 bottles are rendered per site – please consult issue 179.) But for all of the additional richness and caressing texture here, the luscious, lip-smacking primary appeal of ripe red berries (not just currant but strawberry); melon; pit fruits (not only peach but apricot); and citrus is by no means sublimated. Furthermore, this finishes with a sense of transparency to myriad subtle herbal and smoky, saline mineral nuances. I suspect it might be worth following for as long as 20 years (like off-dry Grunhaus Spatlesen of the mid-‘90s and before) and in retrospect constitute a prime exhibit in the turn around of Grunhaus after its brief qualitative slump in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. 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
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