2016 Richter Graacher Domprobst Alte Reben

“Like last year’s eponymous wine, this is sourced from the original, core Domprobst. “We harvest this old parcel en bloc,” explained Richter. “The vines go back to sometime soon after World War I. We give the fruit some pre-fermentative skin contact and then let it ferment in cask as far as it wants to.” In 2015, that was to 16 grams of residual sugar, whereas in this case there are only half that many grams, so stylistically the results resemble what was last year bottled as Graacher Domprobst Auslese trocken. Scents of grapefruit peel, walnut and black currant set the stage for a grippingly piquant palate performance and finish that nonetheless avoid outright bitterness and boast both ample fresh fruit juiciness and mouthwatering salinity. A cantus firmus of wet stone accompanies this bottling from nose to tail, and 12% alcohol does not weight at all heavily on it, nor is its analytically relatively low acidity reflected in any lack of animation. (This impressive success – which represents three full fuders’ volume – is certainly an eloquent exception to Richter’s claim that he found 2016 less than ideally suited to dry wines from high must weight fruit.)” 92 David Schildknecht