Weingut Weingart Bopparder Hamm Ohlenberg Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Mittelrhein, Germany

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Prominently saline in a manner that Riesling often seems to display from quartzite-rich sites, Weingart’s waxen-textured 2009 Bopparder Hamm-Ohlenberg Spatlese trocken exhibits as well rather austere fruit pit and wet stone undertones, but lemony brightness along with its lip-licking salinity render the wine’s finish simulating upbeat. The sense of textural richness here supports subtle, rather Burgundian, intimations of toasted grain, and seems to have influenced Weingart in choosing to label this 12.5% alcohol bottling as “Spatlese.” I would plan on enjoying this over the next 3-4 years, although given long experience with Weingart Rieslings I won’t be shocked if it holds up well for much longer. For notes on some recent developments at Florian Weingart’s estate, please consult my report in issue 187. While much has been done to improve vineyards and cellar, this young grower’s acute self-awareness and quality-consciousness continue as they have since he took over here, even as he has become one of his country’s most talked-about talents. And he would be the last to want readers to remain unaware that the wines rendered here when his father, Adolf, was in charge – of which I recently tasted a fresh, minerally-intense example that I had imported from the difficult 1987 vintage – were consistently good and often downright distinguished. Weingart reports some drought stress in 2009, but while he began picking already before mid October, Oechsle levels were universally high, which explains not only the relatively high alcohol of some of the dry wines (a phenomenon that’s been witnessed in these vineyards in quite a few recent vintages) but the lack of differentiation by that metric between those wines Weingart chose to bottle as Kabinett and those that became Spatlese. Acid levels were on the whole modest, on top of which several of Weingart’s 2009s – including a couple of the ones I thought among his finest, please note! – underwent at least partial malo-lactic transformation.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

This wine was recommended, but no tasting note was given.Florian Weingart brought no Riesling in from the Bopparder Hamm under 90 degrees oechsle – a record at this estate – but the range of phenolic ripeness was much more variable than that statistic would suggest. In years gone by, Adolf Weingart would have attempted to gently de-acidify a vintage with acids like this, but his son sticks by principle and with a single exception did not touch the 2004 acids. Instead, he tried to counter any tendency toward green, aggressive acidity with time on the lees and judicious application of residual sugar. But as he points out, it didn’t help that the 2004s as a rule stubbornly held on to their CO2 after a cold winter, a condition normally viewed as favorable. Introducing some wood into the cellar is an idea for the future.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300