Rheinhessen Comes of Age

 

Although we just found a slew of dry whites from Rheinhessen that rated 90+ points that you can buy direct from the producer for less than US$10 per bottle, most of Planet Wine still hasn’t heard of Germany’s largest wine growing region. Rather more people have heard of the world’s most expensive dry Riesling – the G-Max from Keller currently averages US$1,825 per bottle on the secondary market! But rather few of them realize G-Max is not alone. We rated the G-Max 2016 98 points in our recent tastings, but a handful of single-vineyard dry Rieslings other producers, also rated well over 95. 

The amazing thing is that almost none of this existed 20 years ago. It’s the work of a new generation of winemakers, the Jungwinzer in German, and this report is therefore their story. As Kai Schätzel of the Schätzel estate in Nierstein said, “when we started Rheinhessen was like a prairie with no wine chateaux in sight.” Instead of seeing that as a negative the young turks of this region who had studied winemaking and/or worked for wineries around the globe saw it as a spectacular chance they would collectively grasp. The we-are-stronger-than-I-can-ever-be spirit of the Jungwinzer who freely share practical experience and technical knowledge with each other, was like a turbocharger for of Rheinhessen’s upswing. This enabled the leading producers to achieve a very good standard of hand-crafting of their dry whites more than a decade ago.  

Rheinhessen is the Rheingau’s big brother over on the opposite (left) bank of the Rhine and with 26,500 hectares of vineyards, more than eight times the area of the Rheingau! The two regions are often compared with one another and outside Germany (where Rheinhessen is really cool) the result often reflect the widespread prejudices that small is beautiful and old is better than young. For us at JamesSuckling.com the decisive thing is the quality in the bottle now, and after tasting almost 500 wines from the region we came to the conclusion that today Rheinhessen is one of the top regions in the world for dry white wines.

The evidence to back this daring assertion is the remarkably consistent quality. Few of the dry Riesling, Weissburgunder (aka Pinot Blanc/Bianco) and Grauburgunder (aka Pinot Gris/Grigio) from Rheinhessen that we tasted from over 40 producers rated below 90 and there are a ton of wines that rated well over 90 points. The only slightly weaker group was the dry Silvaner (sometimes written Sylvaner) from the region’s traditional main grape variety. Sometimes I would rub my eyes in disbelief when I realized that the last 20 or more Rieslings I’d tasted had all rated 90+.  This is the result of a winemaking revolution and a no less important leap in the professionalism of vineyard cultivation. Only in the field of international marketing does Rheinhessen lag behind the Rheingau and the Mosel. 

The stats add another dimension to this picture. At the last turn of the century Rheinhessen’s vineyards were dominated by the Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner grapes, that is the raw material for Liebfraumlich and other cheap ‘n’ sweet German wines. Since then the area planted with Riesling grew 75% to 4,538 hectares (far more than the Rheingau and almost as much as the Mosel). The growth for the white Burgundian grapes was even higher though with Weissburgunder climbing 176% to 1,251 hectares, Chardonnay by 272% to 704 hetcares and Grauburgunder shooting up a staggering 314% to 1,675 hectares! This is an on-going reorientation towards premium quality dry wines from these grapes and away from Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner bulk wine production.

What makes the new dry Rieslings of Rheinhessen special? Although they have the reputation of being big wines and the best examples from 2016 have an impressive concentration, they rarely topped 13% alcohol and have a stunning freshness. Terroir lives in Rheinhessen and the geological diversity of the region strongly marks the wines. Loess (a chalk-rich wind-borne material deposited during the last few million years) may be the most common soil type, but there are plenty of vineyards with a limestone-based soil that give wines with a “chalky” character reminiscent of Chablis. The 2016 Morstein GG from Wittmann in the Wonnegau in the southeast with 98 points is one of our highest-rated dry Rieslings and is a near perfect example of this powerful but elegant type. 

There are several islands of shallow rocky soils beginning with the “red slate” (actually a very fine-grained sandstone) of Nierstein and Nackheim at the eastern edge of the region directly on the bank of the Rhine. Gunderloch, Keller, Kühling-Gillot and Schätzel all produced filigree and subtle aromatic dry-Riesling GGs from the top sites of Nierstein in 2015/16 that rated 95+. Then there’s the volcanic porphyry soil around Siefersheim in the rugged west of the region. In spite of its enormous depth and ripeness, the 2016 Heerkretz GG dry Riesling from Wagner-Stempel that rated 97 has the super-racy and mineral personality typical for these wines. They are only the most spectacular examples of these types and we found many others that rated 90+ and cost a fraction of their prices; getting a good introduction to Rheinhessen is not expensive. 

Although the top scores for the best dry wines from other grapes were slightly less spectacular a couple of wines rated 95 points. They were the top-rated Weissburgunder the 2015 Einzigacker from Dreissigacker, and the top-rated Silvaner from Thörle, the 2016 Probstey, both wines with the stature and textural complexity of Grand Cru white burgundies. Neither of these wines is eligible for GG status, not only because these producers aren’t members of the VDP producers association (it regulates the GG category for dry wines from the top sites), but also because Rheinhessen GGs be produced from these grape varieties. Is that a mistake? 

Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir/Nero) is eligible for GG status in Rheinhessen although it only has a serious tradition around Ingelheim in the northwest. Plantings of the most important red grape for quality wines in the region are up 72% since the last turn of the century to 2,016  hectares. A handful of producers are making serious wines from this grape, but in our tastings only Thörle blew our minds. Taste his 2015 Probstey or Hölle to find out how this region could also have a great Pinot future. However, when it comes to dry whites with the deep and refined 2016 vintage Rheinhessen has come of age!  —By Stuart Pigott, Contributing Editor