Very ripe peach is garlanded with musky narcissus and laced with bright lemon juice as well as piquant peach kernel and lemon oil in the Schonborn 2011 Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Erstes Gewachs (*), which, despite a welcome sense of mid-palate sap to accompany its fullness, unfortunately can’t entirely hide its 14% alcohol in a sustained finish that accentuates bitter components and sets the gums to lightly sizzling. For all that, there is an admirable sense of clarity along with welcome interaction of stony and fruity elements. A freshly opened bottle betrayed its alcohol less than one that had been opened for two days. I would plan to drink this by 2016. (It is officially alleged that this wine was subjected to illegal must concentration, though why Barth would want to accentuate an already problematic tendency toward too much potential alcohol is hard for me to imagine.) In recent reports, I have ascribed the significant positive developments at Schloss Schonborn to Peter Barth, who was named “winery director of the year 2009” by the Gault Millau, wine guide within Germany. However, Baarth was dismissed by Count Paul Schonborn in autumn of 2012 after the State of Hessen brought charges against him for violations of German Wine Law based on analyses that allegedly demonstrated he had illegally concentrated musts; blended wines in ways incompatible with their labeled geographical attributions; and added distilled spirit to T.B.A.s (presumably to push them past the 5% alcohol requisite for wine). The charges involved 20 wines (Seven of them Pinots) and around 20,000 bottles, mostly from vintage 2011, all of which the winery – acting decisively, if ultimately with little choice – destroyed or has sought to buy back from trade or private owners so that they can be destroyed. As of early 2014, the case has yet to come to trial. Steffen Roll, who replaced Barth soon after the latter’s dismissal, will be responsible for a newly-assembled viticulture team as well as for wine-making, and there is little doubt among those who have observed their vineyards first hand that the level of care these received under outside management – along with their sheer vastness – was a weak point of the Schonborn estate, whether or not consequences of that weakness played any role in a temptation to transgress wine law in the cellar (which I tend to doubt). As it happens, I got an especially distressing glimpse of the estate’s rot-endangered flagship Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg and other nearby vineyards during the warm, rainy third week of September, 2011, but Barth had not yet ordered any significant picking and expressed confidence that if the rain soon stopped, he would still be able to select both healthy and botrytized bunches capable of excellence, which is exactly what happened. “Many people failed to learn the relevant lessons from 2003,” he insisted, and for that reason ended up with overly-alcoholic and acid-deficient 2011s. Among other procedures, musts were immediately pressed; rapidly and radically chilled; then rigorously settled. This is one of several Rhine estates whose lighter dry 2011s I found more expressive and better-balanced than their Grosse Gewachse. My tasting notes on this occasion reflect no experiences subsequent to Barth’s indictment for wine fraud, but I have placed a parenthetic asterisk (*) after the names of any wines I reviewed that were evidenced in those charges, and added a parenthetic note on the infraction in question. As usual given the huge extent of this estate – and even allowing for its many distinguished vineyards whose fruit informs only generic bottlings – I did not taste more than two-thirds of its vintage offerings. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596 9463. Until recently, though, 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,

The Schonborn 2009 Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Erstes Gewachs – like its fellow Erste Gewachse in this collection – approaches the limit of residual sugar permissible for legal Trockenheit, but at 13.4% betrays its alcohol less obviously than do its stable mates. Along with rich peach and pear fruit there is a metaphorically cooling sense of chalkiness here and an ample sense of finishing refreshment. Hints of hyacinth and lily-of-the-valley in the nose as well as almond oil and grapefruit rind piquancy integrated into the finish add allure. Long-lined like the corresponding dry Hasensprung Spatlese, this offers an extra measure of refinement and ought to be worth following for at least 4-6 years. The latest collection from Peter Barth and his team further demonstrates the high standards that now prevail at this venerable estate. “The window for optimal harvest seems to keep narrowing,” Barth notes, and the relatively high finished alcohol levels on this years dry Schonborn Rieslings certainly testifies to that fact, leaving the 2008s at this address with a distinct edge over their 2009 counterparts. Despite the ravages of hail in Hattenheim and Erbach – including the loss of nearly one-third of the estates anticipated crop of Marcobrunn – the number of different bottlings from that site and from the monopole Pfaffenberg is still considerable. 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, Winesellers Ltd. Niles, IL; tel. (847) 647-1100

The Schonborn 2008 Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Erstes Gewachs - with a point more alcohol and also acidity, than the later-picked Kabinett trocken from this great site - smells of cherry blossom, fresh lemon, and sea breezes. Iodine and brine, almond and peach kernel fascinatingly accent fresh peach and lemon on a glossy, glycerin-rich palate. The finish here, too, is rich yet refreshing and possessed of a sense of mineral depth. I really like the results in Hochheim this year, comments Barth, and although these sites- heavier soils are often disadvantaged in years of autumn rain, their extra measure of overall warmth can prove ideal for vintages that challenge Riesling to fully ripen elsewhere. Bart believes a wine like this needs 4-5 years to show its stuff, but I shall remain conservative until evidence to the contrary is forthcoming and recommend you enjoy it anytime over the next 5-7 years. An April, 2009 visit to this estate - my first in many years - convinced me of Peter Barth's seriousness and talent, and revealed many wines worthy of the great potential of the vast von Schonborn acreage. Last September, I was thrilled by an even finer collection. The number of separate and vineyard-specific bottlings here (as explained - along with other recent developments at this estate - in issue 185) is nowadays intentionally limited. Additionally, in 2008 Barth adopted a very conservative approach, essaying few nobly sweet wines, and while finding his best fruit from top parcels worthy of Erstes Gewachs bottlings, he did not render parallel Spatlese trocken bottlings from the same sites as in other recent years. -Our late start picking this year, with the first Riesling on October 17,- Barth points out, -would have been considered entirely normal 15 years ago. But honestly, by the time we started, I think more than half of the Rheingau had already been picked, a lot of that wines with green, unripe notes and resulting in wines that were then de-acidified.- 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

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