The view from the Ratzenberger vineyards

It was supposed to be an outdoor concert in the Ratzenberger’s rose garden. The venue was hard to match; at the base of the slate soil hillside vineyard above the Hansel and Gretel town of Bacharach along the Rhine. On the hillside across the way, the cows had settled in, warming a patch of grass for the night. To our right, the 16th century clock tower chimed. It was a magical moment and should have been perfect.

But there was a problem. The flutist was shivering. It was 48 degrees at 9pm on a mid-July evening. In lieu of a metronome, we had chattering teeth.

Such was the summer of 2007 in the Mittelrhein. It was so cold and so damp in June and July that even the brilliant Ratzenberger winegrowing team wondered if they’d be harvesting in a few months time. No one attending what became an indoor concert could have imagined that this bitter July evening would give birth to one of the great vintages of our lifetime on the Rhine.

The 2007 Bacharacher Posten Spatlese Halbtrocken combines the gorgeous mineral structure imparted from these slate soil vineyards, with the full-bodied lushness of this spectacular vintage. Kissed with lemon curd sweetness, this is one of those wines that you seem to drink too fast. A shame considering this magnificent Riesling will age gracefully into bitter honey for a decade or more.

What happened between that frigid summer evening and the miraculous harvest?

The spring of 2007 was warm, unseasonably so. The vines raced to flower under perfect conditions. But then things turned rainy and cold. Really cold. Jochen Ratzenberger told us that there were summer days where the temperature outside was barely warmer than that of their cool, underground cellars. Even when the weather cleared in August, it remained cool — but dry. Essentially, the summer temperature spike never came, and the steep, slate vineyards drained beautifully despite the rain. Sometime in late August the Ratzenbergers realized they had something truly special in hand. When they finally harvested, well into October, the Riesling had matured slowly, but perfectly, incrementally reaching optimum ripeness while preserving phenomenal acid structure.

How good are these 2007s? Jochen’s father, Hans Peter, says that he’s never harvested grapes like those of 2007 — so pure, so much minerality, such sweet fruit.

Tasting Notes from the WineAccess Travel Log

“Pale golden color. Beautiful aromas of honey and white peach. Rich honey fruit flavors with a broad middle. Very wide shoulders for a wine from the Mittelrhein, a tribute to the long, drawn out growing season and the perfect ripeness of the grapes. Long, fine finish. Great length. Absolutely delicious now, but the kind of Riesling that, if patient, will age gracefully, with aromas and flavors of bitter honey. Not to miss; one of the great joys of this wine comes from the near empty glass with flower/honey aromas that argue for never rinsing it again.”
–WineAccess, July 2008