The Schonborn 2007 Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Erstes Gewachs is imposingly rich and well-concentrated, with chalky, smoky, bitter fruit pit notes that are rendered more austere by a faint sense of alcoholic heat. Surprisingly for a legally trocken wine, its residual sugar just under 9 grams is noticeable, perhaps also due to amplification by high glycerin. Peter Barth insists that all of his Erstes Gewachs wines need time in bottle to become properly expressive – the 2004s, he asserts, are really coming on now, a claim I unfortunately did not yet have time to test this year – but I am skeptical whether time in bottle will lend this particular exemplar more refinement or diminish the drawbacks of its 13.6% alcohol.
Peter Barth took over cellar duties in 2001, and direction of the entire, fabled Schonborn estate in 2006. I had not visited in all that time – only heard rumors of a revival tales of a sort that are too often false alarms when it comes to large, underperforming, noble Rheingau estates – so I am happy to report that the renaissance of Schloss Schonborn is for real. Ten years ago, I found Schonborn’s dry wines too austere and their sweet wines exaggeratedly so. Examples of these extremes have not been eliminated, but there are plenty of gorgeous and without doubt age-worthy wines that steer a steady stylistic course. Although – like most large German estates – Schonborn has pruned the number of single-vineyard wines and styles on offer when compared with the enormous annual line-ups that prevailed until a decade ago, this has been done with sensitivity to synergistic blends, and allowing plenty of room for each of the domaine’s most celebrated vineyards – in particular their monopole Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg with 12 bottlings this vintage! and Erbacher Marcobrunn – to show-off.
Various importers, including Dee Vine Wines San Francisco, CA; tel. (877) 389-9463, Slocum & Sons, North Haven, CT; tel. 203-239-8000, Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700
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