2007 Vintage

2007 was notable for its exceptionally long growing season, with the first leaves appearing at the beginning of April. The spring saw summery warm and dry weather, leading to very early flowering - in the third week of May - which developed rapidly and without incident. The vines were spared extremes of weather, and for several months we were happy that ripening was proceeding three weeks earlier than usual. In September and October ripening slowed, so that when the harvest started on 8th October, we were almost back to the pace of a ‘normal’ year.

As a result of intensive work on the vine canopy, above all leaf-thinning around the grape bunches (to improve ventilation and access to sunlight), the grapes were very healthy, with little botrytis. After the two previous years, which saw yields of 30hl/ha, we harvested ‘normal’ quantities of around 58hl/ha. (Other famous estates in the region regularly harvest up to 90 hl/ha). The harvest, which lasted almost three weeks, saw mostly dry weather, and we brought in overwhelmingly healthy fruit with ideal acidity. The main harvest ended on 26th October. On the morning of the 16th November, the last grapes were harvested during a frost.

After a natural clarifying through sedimentation, the musts started fermenting with wild yeasts. The young wines stayed on the fine lees until shortly before bottling.

The 2007s are very balanced and finely structured, with great depth and mineral flavours. This outstanding vintage is characterised by delicate fruit aromas, some of them very exotic, which come from the unusually long ripening period. The 2007 Maximin Grünhaus Rieslings are not heavy and powerful, but long, subtle, elegant, and fine.

After the extraordinary vintages of 2005 and 2006, it is clear once again that climate change is overwhelmingly beneficial to our region: chaptalisation for QbA wines has largely been abandoned and the acidity remains vibrant. These Rieslings are full of substance and very agreeable.