German Riesling 2003

Simply put, it is curious to me how the same people that are toting the Kabinetts and Spatleses as lacking acidity are also saying that the BA's and TBA's are the real winners. If the vintage as a whole lacks acidity wouldn't that apply to all levels of ripeness? One would think that lower sugar levels (ie Kabinett) equals more acidity, and higher sugar levels equal lower acidity; thus confusing the novice like myself. Can anyone explain why the lesser QMP's would show lower acidiy levels and therefore be out of balance than the much riper (and presumably sweeter) Spatleses, Ausleses, BA's and TBA's?

Probably because different is also the expectation of acidity in a particular kind of wine? I'm guessing, maybe someon can correct.

Vilco

Jay, I've wondered this myself. It seems a contradiction, as acidities (to my mind) tend to be vintage distinctive, and a ripe year would preclude having decent acidities. Perhaps as the response to your Donnhoff question got translated, we need to 'consume (the 2003's) by the caseload' to determine for ourselves ;)

Mark S

One theory that could explain this is:

During times of high heat or extreme lack of water, the vine can start to shut down and sugar production comes to a halt. Therefore no sugar is being sent to the grapes, but the malate present in the grape itsef is still respired, reducing it's content. So now the grapes could have fairly low sugar content and low malic acid content and these end up going into the Kabinetts and Spatlese.

The vines that did not suffer from the high heat and lack of water continue to produce sugar at a high rate due to the above average amount of sun light and are picked when the acid levels are right, but with a much higher Brix. They may actually be picked before the Kabinett/Spatlese grapes. These go into the Auslese.

Some of these Auslese grapes are left on the vine and dehydration starts, concentrating both the acids and the sugar. Even though some of the malate is still being consumed in the grapes, the dehydration of the grapes can keep the acid to water ratio the same while sugar to water ratio increases. These go into the BA and TBAs.

Or the winemaker could have just added acid.

Andy

In fact, Johannes Hasselbach (son of winemaker Fritz Hasselbach of Gunderloch) said exactly that. The extreme heat shrivled the berries thereby increasing the concentration of acidity which helped a great deal.

The key thing is balance; I found in tasting that most of the Kab's and Spatlese's still managed a good balance between sugar and acidity. I did not find that the case as much the sweeter the wine got. Plus, the BA/TBA's had very little botrytis which to me, really just makes the wine very sweet and concentrated (and not as complex)

Peter

I managed to taste a lot of the '03s in tank and was not unduly worried about lack of acidity. I remember I was most impressed with the Loosen wines. Interestingly the Mosels displayed more acidity than the Rheingaus. I would not be worried about the keeping qualities of either region.

Ron Lel