GG Max. Abtsberg - Riesling

Review

Fermented in old oak fuders, the 2016 Maximin Grünhaus Abtsberg Riesling "GG" opens with a deep, fascinatingly precise and flinty bouquet of perfectly ripe, healthy Riesling berries and pineapple aromas. Full-bodied (at 12% alcohol), rich, lush and intense, this is a firmly structured yet mouth-filling and very elegant Abtsberg with a very long, crystalline and mouthwateringly salty finish. Still young, this Riesling will benefit from further bottle aging. It's the finest dry Abtsberg I have tasted here. Impressive. Bottled May 2017; tasted March 2018. 94/100 Stephen Reinhardt

Maximin von Schubert took over the lead of the domaine from his father, Carl, in 2015 and keeps re-structuring the collection (as well as the wine labels). From 2016 onward there is just one estate wine, the more or less dry-tasting Maximin Grünhaus "Monopole," which could be called the "Bonsai Grand Cru" since it is sourced from grapes entirely grown in the "VDP.Grosse Lage" vineyards of the von Schubert family. "This wine will rarely be bottled below nine grams of residual sugar," Maximin told me during my visit in March this year. The 2016 was bottled with 12 grams per liter and tastes just perfectly dry and fruity. In general, the 2016s represent the classic "Grünhaus style"—beautifully airy, light and elegant Grünhaus Rieslings of great finesse. I haven't tasted any better collections here for years and can only recommend to buy as many 2016s as possible. The leaner, more moderate but highly attractive nature of the vintage—which, luckily, didn't cause much loss in Grünhaus—served the classic Grünhaus style perfectly. For the first time I am also impressed by the dry wines that tended to be a bit too powerful for my personal taste in the last few years. Well, to be honest, there are not that many dry wines at Grünhaus anymore. The GG ("grands crus"), of course, but the rest is more dry-tasting than analytically dry. The former Spätlese Trocken called Abtsberg Alte Reben is now called Alte Reben. So, there is neither an indication of the origin nor of the style (Trocken or Feinherb) anymore on the label. So, you will always have to deal with just one style in the future, which is either really dry or dry-tasting, depending on the vintage and the fermentation. The predominant part will always be from the Abtsberg, but the new name gives greater possibilities.