Sun Stroked

Recent
tastings have caused me to reflect upon the unique 2OO3
growing season in Europe, for many of the wines of that
torrid vintage are in bottle and now available for
assessment.

The Consorzio
Vino Chianti Classico has just passed through Boston,
providing an array of attractive wines to taste: 18
producers brought 48 wines, among which 16 2OO3s. Earlier,
we had a visit from Barbara Rundquist-Muller, manager of the
Dr. Thanisch, Erben Muller-Burggraef Estate in
Bernkastel-Kues in German’s Mosel Valley, also bearing wines
of 2OO3. Barbara’s aunt, Magrit Muller-Burggraef, is owner
of the estate and the granddaughter of the famous Dr. Hugo
Thanish. The Mosel is one of the most northerly of wine
regions; Chianti Classico, in Tuscany, is of Mediterranean
character – a worthy contrast.

Ordinarily, sun
and heat are viticultural desiderata, especially in
northerly vineyards (or, in the southern hemisphere, for
vineyards far to the south). But 2OO3 in Europe was too much
of a good thing. Temperatures were 18 degrees F above the
3O-year average. Tens of thousands of people died. Plants
produced only two-thirds as much greenery as usual, and thus
absorbed much less carbon dioxide for productive processes
than in previous years. The dry, hot, sunny conditions
eclipsed the legendary years of memory, even of historical
records. There is talk of 1893, of 154O! Such a summer
yields grape of great ripeness, but, Shakespeare to the
contrary notwithstanding, ripeness is not all. Grapes may be
sunburned and raisined. Acids are depleted. While sugar and,
thus, alcohol are high, perhaps too high, the grapes may be
otherwise immature. Balance is all, and this may be lost.
German Rieslings are, at their best, light, even ethereal,
with a spine and finish of fruit acid that enables graceful
aging. Their best vintages, like those of all wines, are
warm, sunny and dry, but not like 2OO3. While more southerly
red wines have some of the same requirements, they are
likely to suffer less from extreme heat than delicate
northern whites. In the aftermath of 2OO3, I felt uneasy,
and would have not considered buying futures, for it was
going to take particular vineyard conditions, skill and
restraint in winemaking – and luck – to make the good,
perhaps great wines we might hope for. That the wines we are
sampling today turned out so well is, therefore,
particularly pleasing.

The racy,
delicate wines of the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region are at highest
risk from the summer stresses of global warming. Growers and
vintners can take some protective actions. Irrigation,
normally not allowed, was permitted in 2OO3, but most
growers were neither inclined nor equipped so to do. Mulch,
often straw, helped retain what water there was. The usual
practice of pulling leaves to expose the bunches to sunlight
would have, in 2OO3, desiccated and shriveled the grapes,
and so was dispensed with. That the best wines are made from
mature vines, which possess developed root systems, is
accentuated in drought years. Young vines tend to shut down
in the heat, yielding immature fruit. Quality-conscious
growers concentrated on older vines, and, to ensure
all-important low yields, engaged in merciless bunch
pruning. Timing of picking is critical. It is difficult,
requiring experience, courage and luck to obtain fruit of
sufficient maturity, yet adequate acid (they are
reciprocally related: as the grape matures, sugar rises,
acid falls – remember, balance is all). In normal years, the
best wines come from the sunniest, warmest, best-drained
slopes. In 2OO3, on the contrary, cooler areas – the Saar
and Ruwer rather than the middle Mosel – and less highly
regarded flatter vineyards with more water-retentive soil
may be less traumatized.

Unusually,
addition of acid was permitted in 2OO3, but, again, few
availed themselves of this option, fearing effects on wine
structure. I’m told that oxygen exposure was assiduously to
be avoided. Production of German wines in 2OO3 was at least
2O percent lower than average, and considerably below the
peak years we know and love. The least rich quality wines,
QbAs and Kabinetts, are rare. Dryness inhibited Botrytis
formation. Nevertheless, many fine wines were made. In
critically tasting, one should concentrate on the
acid-engendered length and elegance rather than the
generally adequate fruitness.

The Thanisch
family’s wine growing in Bernkastel-Kues can be traced at
least 37O years. A share of the renowned Bernkasteler Doktor
vineyard was acquired at the end of the 18th century. The
name recalls the legend of the near-resurrective power of
its wine. The estate is composed of ten hectares of top
vineyard sites in the Middle Mosel, yielding about 65OO
cases of the single-vineyard wines. The vineyards average
65O feet in altitude. The vines, growing on their own roots
(no Phylloxera here), have an average age of 6O to 7O years.
The soil of the “impossibly steep” slopes, which must be
worked by hand, is rough slate, giving the wines a pleasing
minerality. Because different levels and exposures of the
vineyards lead to different rates of ripening, six passes
through the vineyards over six to eight weeks are required
for harvest to obtain perfectly ripe grapes. The wines
undergo a very long, slow fermentation, and mature in
traditional large oak. All this is carried out in a very
cool ancient ice cellar hewn deeply beneath the Doktor
vineyard.

All of the
quality wines I tasted are delicious: fragrant, delicate,
lively, and long. They are young, and their fruit is
commendably balanced with acid. They are, of course, all 1OO
percent riesling. The grosslage Bernkasteler Badstube
Kabinett is made from the grapes of two fine vineyards,
Graben and Lay. The others are single-vineyard wines.
Bernkasteler Graben Spatlese smells to me of pear, unusual
in German wines. Braunberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Spatlese hints
at spice and orange. Bernkasteler Lay Auslese does have some
Botrytis, and magically combines intimations of flowers and
fruits with lacy lightness.

The
record-breaking summer of 2OO3 was less of a problem in
Tuscany’s hillside vineyards (altitude 7OO to 2OOO feet)
than 5OO miles to the north, where, far from the sea, the
continental climate is not as forgiving with falling
temperatures at night. The vines and the winemakers of
Chianti are used to heat. (In fact, many newly planted vines
in Chianti Classico are being trained close to the ground to
enable absorption of maximal heat from the ground, although
that would possibly backfire in a summer such as 2OO3.) It
did not appear that special precautions were taken in 2OO3.
I suppose there was a sense of relief after the cold, wet
Tuscan summer of 2OO2. The weather in 2OO4 was more typical
than the opposite extremes of the preceding two years. I
don’t know yet about 2OO5.

The Chianti
Classico 2OO3 wines I tasted were, of course, the normal
versions – the Reserva wines are not yet ready. The wines
are young, and many have recently traveled. They are, by
law, at least 😯 percent sangiovese. These fine examples
were mostly 9O or 95 percent, some 1OO, the rest other red
grapes such as canaiolo, colorino, merlot, cabernet
sauvignon. After 2OO5, the white grapes trebbiano and
malvasia, now permitted to a maximum total of six percent
but seldom used by better winemakers, will no longer be
welcome. Many of the wine producers also make fine extra
virgin olive oil.

The wines are
richer in flavor than usual, with enticing bouquets and
comfortably soft tannins. All were at least satisfactory,
most considerably better than that. They certainly can be
drunk with pleasure, especially with food, now or soon.
While I am unable to warrant their long-term development and
survival, I believe they’ll be fine. It is early days: there
will no doubt be both pleasant and disappointing evolutions,
but I will risk naming those that tasted best to me. I
particularly liked, on that particular day, Fontodi, La
Marcellina Comignole, Le Corti, Le Fonti, and Monteraponi.
Several others could easily have made this list, which might
well have been entirely different on a different day.
Overall, I was reassured. And remember, Italian wines go
well with foods of all nationalities, especially those that
are well seasoned.

What are we to
make of the 2OO3 weather from the long perspective? Is it a
sign of what’s to come? Will our temperate zone vineyards
become too warm to produce fine wine? Might we someday be
planting in Alaska, Scandinavia, Siberia?