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94-95 WA.
"From "petite Siberia," the 2015 Siefersheimer Heerkretz Riesling trocken GG was picked very late between October 20 and 27; it displays a beautifully clear, intense, precise and smoky/mineral bouquet. There are herbal and oaky/chalky Burgundian notes, but wine is also shy. Its lush tropical aromas come along as an association rather than real fruit. Round and highly elegant on the palate, this is a dry, very refined, mineral and salty Riesling of great complexity. The wine has loads of salt and is provided with a long and persistent finish. The 2015 is fresh and chalky (though there is no chalk at all in the volcanic porphyry soils), as well as in perfect balance. It is Wagner's most "Burgundian" Riesling and the finest Heerkretz that I can remember. The wine is chalky (though there is no chalk at all in the volcanic porphyry soils), dry and fresh; it should be excellent with food. I'd love to try it from a Burgundy glass, once. Compared to Höllberg, the Heerkretz is pretty restrained, but very precise. A great, great Riesling and one of the finest 2015s in all of Germany. I ought to be terribly wrong if 2015 is not the obvious best vintage that Daniel Wager and his viticulturist, Oliver Müller, have ever produced. The 2015 vintage, with its dry and warm summer and the sunny and coolish autumn, was simply perfect for a Siberian vineyard like the Heerkretz. This vineyard does not give ripe grapes every year if you don't fight hard for ripeness. Picked very late, towards end of October, the 2015 GG is fully ripe, intense and full of minerals. It is a full-bodied and aromatic, beautifully refined Riesling of pure elegance and finesse, with a very persistent finish. Also, the Höllberg GG, which is grown in a warmer spot, has never been better. It is dense, round and firmly structured, revealing a mouth-filling and extremely stimulating salinity. In both crus, the great Auslesen have been selected, but even the dry village and respectively the terroir wines, are of outstanding quality. Wine lovers have to check the dry Fürfeld Riesling Malaphyr, which can easily compete with top GG Rieslings in terms of elegance, finesse and mineral expression. The weather conditions around Siefersheim (Rheinhessen) were just perfect, especially during autumn, which saw the most relaxed harvest in years. It took team Wagner-Stempel four weeks (until October 28th) to handpick all of the vineyards, under blue sky but with cool winds from the east. The nights were terribly cold in the second half of October, so that Riesling especially could intensify its aromas and develop greatest finesse and elegance. One of the most crucial phenomena in 2015: The grapes received perfect ripeness and remained healthy until the end of October. Some of the berries shriveled to raisins without any botrytis and the acidity levels remained high, with 9-13 grams per liter—stunningly high. The must weights were not excessive either. All of the grapes were picked at 90-97° Oechsle. Riesling was king in 2015, because there was no hurry to pick, and Wager picked his best wines pretty late, between October 20 and 28. Many producers in the Pfalz and further south had already been finished for four weeks at this time. We shouldn't forget, though, that 2015 started very normal. The winter was mild, but long; spring didn't start earlier than the middle of April, but the whole month—and even May—was pretty cool, and rainfalls were as rare as in the months before. With the onset of flowering in the beginning of June, temperatures finally became warm and the first serious rainfalls brought the water that had been missed for months. At the end of June, the Jahrhundertsommer (record-breaking summer) started, and during July there were more than 280 sunshine hours and just 15 liters of rain. In the middle of August, a few rainfalls and cooler temperatures announced the cooler period, which started at the end of the month. September saw less rainfalls than in other regions and the ripening process remained very slow. The harvest began September 28 and in fact finished at the end of October. Siefersheim and Wagner-Stempel are surely among the outstanding addresses when it comes to finding the finest wines of 2015. Daniel Wagner is also happy about the other grape varieties, of which I only tasted a few excellent Pinot Blancs. Just a few words regarding the vinification, which is more or less the same for all of the dry wines. The grapes are not destemmed and pressed after a maceration of six to twenty-four hours. The fermentation does not include malolactic and the wines are bottled after five to eight months on the full lees. Sweet wines are certainly not macerated and were bottled after six months on the lees." Wine Advocate #226, Aug 2016 |