The annual long week-end is a social wine-tasting and partying event, from
Friday
morning at the Vinothek in Bernkastel to the Sunday evening Auslese test in
Erden :-) I got around to tasting some 140-150 wines (no spitting...) and
the final outcome is that 2003 is a vintage worth buying. Certainly, a
number of wines showed low acidity but most were very balanced anyway and
vintners claimed they would keep for many years. Uniformly, the hot year
showed through in high sugar readings and good color (meaning well extracted
wines). A few of the usual good performers didn't quite live up to
expectations and were superseded, this time, by young upstarts fresh from
school taking over their fathers' operations. These guys seemed to have
learned something about wine making that the elders didn't know!
Whatever they've done (and only one admitted to having added a very small
amount of acid) the wines were delicious and lively - even with a hint of
spritzyness from carbon dioxide which one vintner said was done deliberately
to further the impression of a wine having a higher level of acidity.
What to choose? It might be worth looking for outlying vineyards, like
Veldenzer Kirchberg, with soils keeping higher levels of humidity. A top
site like the Brauneberger Juffer might show less well because of too little
water for the vines in 2003. However, we found, as usual, that the vintner
still is
the most important part of the equation. Elder vintners compared this
vintage to 1975 and 1976, even 1983 without a common agreement as to why and
how.
I agree that there are several points of resemblance, but
my personal impression is that the making of wines is far advanced today
compared to these times and the wines thus better now than these were.
All things taken together, my choice was with the halbtrocken (semidry)
Spätleses and the dry Q.b.A's of 12.5-13+% a.b.v. (Ausleses in reality), but
there were some very fine top traditional wines. An Auslese with
137Oechsle, a B.A. with 175 and a T.B.A with 220Oechsle were all very, very
good. I did have a few sugar bombs, however, so there's reason to be
cautious with these superripe wines.
The ranking of this vintage, very subjectively, would be something behind
2001 but ahead of 2002. Future is hard to judge, but the best will surely
keep five to ten years.
As to 2004 all were praying for sunshine and no rain the next 10 days, but,
alas, that may not be the case. We'll see.
Anders