Stefan Kraml met me well before eight o’clock on a mid-August morning with an air of quiet confidence and near nonchalance that tipped me off to what would follow: a display of Grünhaus quality such as practically went without saying a decade or more ago. He and owner Carl von Schubert have regained their footing, despite a year in which what von Schubert described as nature’s eventual “turbo-autumn” was preceded by severe hail and an unprecedented tornado that felled 200-year-old trees and a portion of the vineyard walls – to say nothing of the toll it took on vines! The harvest began October 10 and – like many a successful one this year – was finished in a mere two action-packed weeks. Up to the level of B.A., incidentally, all of the wines fermented spontaneously.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Superior 91
The 2005 Maximin Grünhaus Riesling Herrenberg Superior smells of fresh lime, red currant, and nut oils, with a subtly smoky, site-typical overtone. In the mouth, this is polished and glossy in texture, lush in ripeness, and hinting at honey, generously juicy in its citrus and red berry fruit, and quite expansive in its finish of lime, red currant, and honeydew melon tinged with crushed stone and salt. The combination of substantiality and clarity and of fruit backed by unobtrusive residual sugar will stand this in good stead on the dinner table. And based on the routinely successful dry Grünhaus wines from before 1998, one can pretty confidently predict that a wine like this need not be drunk up in less than 10-12 years.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Superior 90
The 2005 Maximin Grünhaus Riesling Abtsberg Superior smells and tastes of white peach, grapefruit, and a whiff or tang of the sea. Clear, juicy, and polished on the palate, it hints at creaminess of texture and offers subtle wet stone and mineral salts along with pure peach and citrus in its finish.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Kabinett AP 23 91
$The 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett A.P. #23 smells of honey, lime, and red currant. Juicy and fresh in the mouth, boasting lovely clarity of fruit and transparency to smoky, salty, crushed stone mineral nuances, it finishes with long, pure red currant and lingonberry fruit tinged with sage, salty, smoky notes. Unusually rich and honeyed for a wine advertising itself as “Kabinett,” it nevertheless displays disarming delicacy and will indubitably do versatile service either solo or at the luncheon or dinner table. The track record for Grünhaus Rieslings of genuine Kabinett balance from ripe years is also excellent so I would not worry about keeping this for at least 12-15 years. (The A.P. number is noted here because another ostensibly similar Herrenberg Kabinett which I did not taste was released and sold out very early.)
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Spätlese AP26 93
The first of four variations on Abstberg Spätlese this vintage, a 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Abtsberg Riesling Spätlese A.P. #26 represents by far the largest volume. Rich aromas and flavors of white peach with a hint of rhubarb and honey tinged with herbs and wet stones lead to a quite honeyed, rich, satiny palate emphasizing melons peaches and rhubarb, but shot through with bracing citricity. The finish here is entirely convincing with a pure and refined colloquy of fruit and mineral as well as a combination of richness and invigorating brightness that one associates with a long and venerable line of highly ageworthy Abstberg Spätlesen.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Auslese Fuder 30 93
A 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Herrenberg Riesling Auslese Fuder #30 (the cask #30 as usual prominently printed on a triangular neck label) represents a remnant of the previous Herrenberg Auslese blended and matured with the product of a later, riper picking. Peach, apricot, red berries, and honey in the nose and mouth preserve some of the luscious, clear, juicy fruitiness and vivid citricity that made the “regular” Herrenberg memorable. A rich, ennobled honey character and prominent peach and apricot preserve character here chart an imposing but quite different and less dramatic or penetrating course in the finish than in that wine. Certainly though this is impressively opulent and potentially long-lived, so only a perspective of several decades could genuinely decide the issue in favor of one or the other Herrenberg Auslese as superior.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Auslese Fuder 44 91
A 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Herrenberg Riesling Auslese Fuder #44 originates in a parcel that had been earmarked for Eiswein but succumbed to heavy botrytis. Aromas of sage, resin, distilled red berry and lemon oils suggest more sheer intensity than they do overt botrytis. On the palate, this is palpably dense, with nippy, bright, high-toned esters and powerful acidity and singed peach and caramelized apple reflecting the ennobled nature of the fruit. Tart red berries return along with sage oil and bright citrus in a rather severe, almost hard finish. Is this simply knotted up by its botrytis? All I can suggest is that one take a later look at this evidently embryonic, formidable rather than loveable concentrate.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Auslese Fuder 21 95
The 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Abstberg Riesling Auslese Fuder #21 represents for the most part a single picking – not more botrytized than its predecessors – that evolved in too singular a way not to bottle it separately. It also represents – for a single fuder Grünhaus Auslese – a remarkable value. (And, incidentally, all of this year’s single fuder Auslesen were bottled in half- as well as full bottles.) With a lovely aroma of white peach, high-toned lemon oil, and herbal distillates, this presents an imposingly creamy, polished palate that nonetheless sacrifices nothing in clarity or purity of fruit, nor in refinement or refreshment to the exotic and honeyed accents of botrytis or to its richness of texture. There is also an ample sense of wet stone slate character such as one associates with the most memorable single-fuder Abtsberg bottlings of yore. Malty rich and nut oil dark tones topped by peach preserves, vivid citrus and ethereally esterous treble notes make for a finish of striking complexity. Here is hands down the finest Grünhaus Riesling since the two single-fuder bottlings (one each from Herrenberg and Abstberg) that represented the apex of vintage 1997.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Beerenauslese 93
The 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Herrenberg Riesling Beerenauslese smells and tastes of nectarine, grapefruit, and red currant jelly. Bright lemon-lime acidity and honeyed richness set up an intriguing tension on the palate and the finish is formidably – indeed almost blazingly and almost stridently – concentrated, if not exactly enveloping or enticing. There is little question that this has exceptional potential and might relax sufficiently even in the short term to become more winesome. Certainly, though, the long term for this wine has to be measured in several decades.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Trockenbeerenauslese 94
Representing a mere 100 liters, the 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Abstberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese offers an esterous, slightly volatile nose featuring peach and lemon oil, a super-concentrated palate impression of inscrutably dense citrus and pit fruit essence, and a finish full of distilled fruits, flowers and herbs, powerful citrus, and honey. A hint of caramelization and brown sugar also becomes evident as the wine uncoils. You need hours – and perhaps decades – to take the full measure of such a wine, whereas today’s assessment must reflect its utterly embryonic and certainly less than cuddly state. I think there has been nothing comparable in concentration to this at Grünhaus since the Abtsberg B.A. and T.B.A. of 1995.
2005 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Trockenbeerenauslese Goldkapsel 98
The 2005 Maximin Grünhauser Abstberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese Gold Capsule offers the extraordinarily concentrated essence of a single selection of botrytis berries early in the harvest. With a nose so high-toned that your dog will probably be better able to appreciate it than you, this rises off the charts in terms of sheer concentration of pit fruits and honey and veritable detonation of citricity. Resin, herbal essences, concentrate and distillate of red berries and pit fruits, intense citrus and honey combine for a sensationally intense and strikingly juicy and refreshing complex of flavors whose finishing intensity will have you checking your watch. Ironically, this most concentrated of essences is easier to appreciate than were a couple of its immediate predecessors and a loveable levity goes along with its amazing esszencia-like viscosity. Whoever inherits any bottles you happen to purchase will be richly rewarded, possibly into the next century.
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