2023 Mosel-Saar-Ruwer: A Riesling Race Against Rain

BY ANNE KREBIEHL MW | DECEMBER 17, 2024

The slopes that drop steeply to the meandering Mosel in the Rhenish Slate Massif received their fair share of sunshine and rain in 2023. While the first half of the growing season made many fear a repeat of the drought conditions of 2022—even resulting in dry stress for younger vines and some sunburn—summer rain arrived with all its concomitant factors. Initially welcomed with relief, ripening soon accelerated, splitting berries and attracting the wrong kind of rot. Nonetheless, a handful of growers managed to craft stonking TBAs. While there are many brilliant and downright juicy dry wines, expressive and exuberant even at entry level, it was Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese that shone.

Not all slopes were equally affected. While some producers had to pause their picking due to rain, others harvested in blissful sunshine. Once again, adaptability and agility were of the essence, and selection was the name of the game. Those who had both manpower and flexibility were the winners in 2023.

Late-afternoon sun on a Mosel riverbend.

Sunshine and Rain

What is unusual about 2023 is that both sunshine and rain were plentiful. Many describe the start of the year as relatively relaxed, with good flowering and generous fruit set. Tightly packed bunches came to haunt some winemakers later in the year as berries swelled with rain and had little room to expand, leading them to burst. June was dry and hot, but notably lacked the heat spikes of 2022. It remained dry until July, when welcome rain arrived to relieve some younger vineyards. The weather turned as August became overcast, cooler than average and rainy, just as the grapes were softening. The weather turned again in September, which went on to become the hottest on record in Germany. In combination with sufficient water in the soils, ripening accelerated, and so did disease pressure.

The Wines

The 2023 growing season was certainly no walk in the park. Daniel Kiowski, export director at Markus Molitor, put it succinctly, stating, “Two thousand twenty-three was a very difficult year—great wines are better, the poor ones worse. It is all down to how much you were willing to sacrifice,” referring to the amount of fruit that had to be discarded. Yet, at numerous points during my fall trip, I marveled at how the 2023 Rieslings can be so fruit-laden, tangy and full-flavored, yet also so light-footed. The wines are very approachable and beautifully balanced, with integrated, ripe acidity and moderate alcohol. Where the 2022s are fine-boned, 2023s are juicy and exuberant. It is clear that the fruit had all it needed, namely sufficient water. Oliver Haag summarized it perfectly: rain and sun gave the wines “Saft und Kraft,” i.e., juice and vigor. This also meant that musts had all the nitrogen and nutrients they required to ferment. A number of growers reported that the musts started fermenting even before they were fully sedimented—which was also down to the still-warm temperatures at harvest. The key in 2023 was sorting and discarding rotten fruit, which brings us back to Kiowski’s point. The winemakers I visited did everything to sort, sort, sort and ended up with brilliant wines.

A relaxed and smiling Oliver Haag relished the challenge of the 2023 vintage. His wines show it.

Local Luck

While the above is a broad sketch, vineyard location was incredibly important in determining outcomes. Reinhard Löwenstein in Winningen, in the warmer Terrassenmosel, explained, “Until early September, all looked good, all was ripe, all was normal, then sour rot set in at a galloping pace.” This kind of rot happens when grapes are ripe and their skins have softened. Tiny fissures in the grape skins allow acetobacter, which smells of vinegar, to enter via fruit flies. Löwenstein added that at the start of harvest, sorting meant discarding 20% of the fruit, while toward the end, that rose to 80%.

A few kilometers upstream, in Pünderich, Clemens Busch explained, “Any botrytis that appeared turned and could not be used.” Much fruit had to be discarded. In Bernkastel, however, Christina Thanisch of Witwe Thanisch happily reported that 2023 afforded her the possibility of making Auslese—she even picked a Beerenauslese in the sunshine in the Doctor vineyard. Christoph Schaefer, of Willi Schaefer in Graach, set his sights on Kabinett and Spätlese. Constantin Richter, of Max Ferdinand Richter in Mülheim, presented not one but two TBAs, one from the Juffer Sonnenuhr and one from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr. Both possess unspeakable concentration and hair-raising acidity levels exceeding 20 g/L (!). Nik Weis at St. Urbans-Hof in Leiwen also picked TBAs. He notes that while his focus was on making dry wines, the drier, sunny weather that appeared in the second half of September created some beautiful botrytis. That said, these high Prädikate were only made in tiny quantities. It is the Kabinette and Spätlesen that shine.

In the cooler Saar and Ruwer, some estates escaped rain at harvest entirely. Maximin von Schubert, at Maximin Grünhaus in the Ruwer, remembered the “golden autumn,” while Dorothee Zilliken and Florian Lauer in the Saar were also spared from rain.

Constantin Richter is all smiles—in truth, it is the after-effect of tasting absolutely timeless and time-defying TBAs.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

So many Winzer noted the difficulty in differentiating between good and bad botrytis. Thomas Haag said that picking was so exhausting for his team that they seemed not only physically but mentally exhausted, having to sniff and inspect every bunch. Johannes Selbach joked that if harvest had carried on, his team would have “mutinied.” Christoph Friedrich, at Van Volxem in the Saar, noted a new kind of disease pressure at harvest. “This is no longer the kind of botrytis we know—there were other bacterial infections, too,” Friedrich explained, echoing voices from the Nahe who observed the same thing in 2023. In the past, botrytis arrived with wet, cool weather, but this time, higher temperatures allowed all manner of infections to thrive. Nik Weis said that the level of sour rot that could be smelled in some lower-lying vineyards is something that only used to occur much further south.

Nik Weis at St. Urbans-Hof has plenty to smile about with his 2023 Rieslings on a light-flooded Friday afternoon.

A Fearful Outlook for a Way of Life

At the time of my trip, various local newspapers reported on an interview with Dr. Simone Loose, economics chair at Hochschule Geisenheim. Dr. Loose cited a pessimistic outlook, especially for winemakers on steep slopes, where the cost of farming is now so high that it is no longer economically viable for many. These reports clearly hit a nerve. Various winemakers commented on them, simply because many were hit by devastating spring frosts in April 2024 and flooding in May 2024. With reduced yields in 2021 due to disease pressure, drought in 2022, disease pressure again in 2023 and losses due to frost in 2024, other economic challenges become harder to navigate. The rising costs of dry goods and energy along with higher interest rates are also tough. One winemaker noted that the value of his vineyard land had depreciated, making him poorer in the eyes of his bank. And remember, I visit estates that produce premium wines that sell internationally. We are not even talking about the bulk market, where Germany simply cannot compete due to cost structures and fragmentation. There, prices no longer cover the cost of production. The prospect of higher minimum wages in Germany for every seasonal worker prompted two winemakers to suggest that this would lead to more and more winemakers shutting shop. One put the figure at 30%, while Dr. Loose herself thinks that Germany’s vineyard acreage will shrink.

Gut Cantzheim, with the steep slope of the majestic Kanzemer Altenberg rising right behind it.

While nobody will mind if acres of indifferent vineyards on alluvial plains disappear, nor will they miss the pedestrian wines resulting from them, even premium estates are struggling. It is tough out there for these winemakers, especially those who care so much about expressing their ancient steep slopes. For these producers, it is a labor of love. Mosel, Saar and Ruwer vineyards have always been marginal, climatically and economically. Right now, the wines they produce do not command the prices they should. They are bargains, in fact. One winemaker said: “The Mosel is special. Our production costs are simply not reflected in the sale prices that are achieved.”

I tasted the wines in this report during estate visits in September 2024.

© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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