Schubert Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb 2006
Posted on 23 September 2011
This Riesling has been with me since release. Deciding to open a Riesling from the Moselle, Saar, or Ruwer (as here) is never easy. These wines can age for ages, and you don’t want to waste them opening a bottle before its time. It’s a little easier with the sweeter styles, which are always attractive, but drier wines can often be challenging in their youth.
Not sweet, not austere: superb balance.
This Weingut von Schubert 2006 Spätlese feinherb (upper-lower-semi-dry) was just brilliant. It has fantastic balance. Very rich, but not in the least cloying: there’s enough residual sugar to round off what is a pretty potent acidity here. In fact this wine works like an overclocked machine: the speed is hair-rising and there’s too much of everything, but in the end it balances out.
It’s also interesting how this 2006 Riesling comes to terms with its own vintage. 2006 was a warm year for the Moselle, more successful in the sweeter styles. Few dry wines have convinced me: the alcohol often sticks out a bit. This wine from Schubert shows the warm year – there’s plenty of honeyed, caramelly, almost petrolly notes. It would definitely be too much if not for the razor-sharp freshness of acidity, typical of the Ruwer area but not to be taken for granted in a year like 2006. As it stands, this wine goes beyond the artificial distinctions between Spätlese and Kabinett, trocken, feinherb and sweet: it is just a majestic grand cru Riesling with a towering personality.
Carl von Schubert in his cellar at Grünhaus. The bottles are those of a single tasting session here.
As a side note, von Schubert belongs to the historical giants of German wine, but strangely, their ratings in the German press have dipped in the last few years. I don’t really understand why. This 2006 Spätlese is the third Schubert wine I’ve tried in the last few months (from the 2006 and 2007 vintages), and they’ve all been very impressive. In my experience, there are only half a dozen estates in the Moselle working at this level of precision, concentration and balance.
Disclosure
Source of wine: own purchase.