May 20, 2017 | News | Wines | Mature Riesling
Our major retrospective of 2007 dry & off-dry Riesling yielded a heterogeneous picture with however some resounding successes. Here the key facts.
2007 proved one of the most unusual vintages in a generation. Warm spring led to a record-early flowering. However, summer was average at best, pushing out ripeness and hang time to well over 120 days (the norm is more like 100 days). Perfectly dry weather at harvest meant clean grapes with little botrytis.
Well-received at first, the 2007 vintage suffered from the economic crisis of 2008 and from the bulkiness the wines developed after a year in the bottle which made wine lovers nervous about its evolution.
We re-sampled over 40 of the finest dry and off-dry Riesling from leading Estates in Germany, Austria and France such as Weingut Georg Breuer, Weingut Emrich-Schönleber, Weingut Keller, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, Weingut F.X. Pichler, Maison Trimbach, etc.
Overall, the 2007 dry and off-dry Riesling remain driven by ripeness underpinned by some zest and a tad more presence than usual. Some wines, especially those marked by botrytis or from very late and ripe grapes, are probably over-the-top for most palates.
However, at the top, the vintage proves far better than its reputation and in fact outright outstanding. The finest 2007 dry and off-dry Riesling retain a core of freshness and convey a unique sense of precision and depth. These wines are really worth digging out. In fact, we bought some more for our own cellars!
One word of caution though: Many of the wines tasted were not yet fully ready. Opening well in advance should be the default option when faced with a high-end 2007 dry and off-dry Riesling.
The complete 2007 dry and off-dry Riesling Retrospective including our list of highlights and detailed tasting notes for each wine was published in Mosel Fine Wines Issue No 34 (Apr 2017).
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© Text by Mosel Fine Wines "The Independent Review of Mosel Riesling ... and beyond!"
Disclaimer: Mosel Fine Wines is an independent publication and has no commercial relationship with any Estate, association or organization featured in this article.
