An American commentator on German wines gives his thoughts on current confusions in names, categories, wine types and labelling
I have fulminated thoroughly at the dangers posed to German Riesling quality and diversity by the latest VDP statutes and promise not to continue in that vein on this occasion. But there is another danger which my annual two-week compression tour, just completed, has highlighted. This is the extent to which the labeling practices of growers in sympathy with or in reaction to the VDP [the organisation representing the most traditional, aristocratic and now supposedly best wines estates in Germany] statutes threaten to sow massive confusion in the marketplace (whether German- or English-speaking).
Each of us has had occasion to point out in print that whatever regulations the VDP adopts must be superimposed over a misbegotten Wine Law that is a source of growing conceptual confusion in and of itself. But the muddles in the marketplace to which I now refer go beyond those which are implicit in overlapping regulations.
I visited 68 of Germany's top growers over the past two weeks. For the most part, I did not need to raise the subject of the VDP statutes because the grower raised it first, often by way of explaining changes in their labeling.
Fully one-quarter of the growers with whom I spoke said that they rejected the concept of 'Grosse Gewächse' [first growth – see Germany's dry dictators] at least for their region or vineyards. Not surprisingly, Moselaner constituted most of this refusenik faction. Of the remaining 75 per cent of growers visited, more than half expressed major reservations about or disagreement with the statutes governing Grosse Gewächse. This surely makes one ask with what momentum and mandate the VDP's classification of vineyards and reconceptualization of German Riesling (to say nothing of the 'trocken' juggernaut) proceeds.
The approaches to Grosses (or 'Erstes') Gewächs bottlings within each grower's offerings ranges from marginalization (accompanied by comments such as 'this is a style made to appeal to another small segment of the market' or 'I'll wait and see how the customers react') to the positioning of these wines as the pinnacle or even the core of one's portfolio. Not surprisingly, the few genuinely beautiful Grosses Gewächs Rieslings I tasted came from the minority of growers wholeheartedly committed to the concept, although there were others who in my opinion had little to show for their zealotry. The only common marketing denominator among Grosse Gewächse is their being the highest-priced dry wines on any given price list, whether or not the grower thinks them the best. Some growers readily admitted that their Grosse Gewächse – frequently as high in alcohol as they are in price and contained in bottles heavier than a conventional magnum – are directed at a wealthy German consumer who will only buy German wine if it is hyped, high-test and high-priced.
The implications of the VDP statutes, particularly as regards non 'Grosses Gewächs' wines, is heatedly discussed, yet I found that nearly every grower had a different interpretation of issues as basic as the future of vineyard-designated Kabinett or Spätlese wines, and the continued existence of the category 'Spätlese trocken'.
In the absence of stylistic consensus, of a common approach to marketing 'Grosse Gewächse' or of agreement about the implications of VDP statutes for a wide range of categories, growers are increasingly adopting their own 'winery-internal' labeling practices. Spurred on by the prevailing ideological ferment, fully one-half of the growers whom I visited have recently instituted significant changes in how they label their wines. I am all for giving the grower stylistic freedom. In fact, that is the fundamental reason I oppose the regulations attendant to the VDP's recent classification. But the freedoms currently being exercised in labeling and marketing threaten the hapless consumer with complete befuddlement (to say nothing – as I have promised on this occasion! – of their so often being stylistically procrustean).
Consider just a few widespread, diverse and in many cases mutually incompatible practices.
No more labeling of QbA wines as 'trocken' but only bottling as QbA wines that are 'trocken in taste' if not by law
Elimating the term 'halbtrocken' from labels, whether or not there are still wines on the list which fit the legal definition
Substituting (more or less) the word 'feinherb' for 'halbtrocken', a practice which is apparently not legal but tolerated
Eliminating the labeling of wines as 'Spätlese trocken', 'Kabinett trocken', or 'Auslese trocken' and instead labeling some or all dry wines meeting the former standards of 'Qualitätswein mit Prädikat' as simply 'QbA trocken'
Only labeling as 'Kabinett' wines falling within a certain range of residual sugar
Eliminating wines labeled as 'Kabinett'
Eliminating entirely labeling with 'Prädikat' of any sort
Eliminating the reference to a site from the label of ANY off-dry Spätlese, even if the site is classified and the corresponding dry wine is labeled as 'Erstes Gewächs'
Adding the designation 'Selection' for wines which meet those recently defined criteria
Printing an 'S' somewhere on the label ('Selection' now being a legal construct) to indicate a wine of purportedly special quality
Going beyond the mere labeling of vineyard site to the specification of 'old vines' or 'parcels', another practice which is apparently not legal but tolerated
Labeling wines with the name of the town and vineyard in eye-strainingly small print (and often on the official but in practice 'back' label)
Inverting the order of town and site on labels for 'Grosse Gewächse'
Retaining the old order (with or without '-er')
Printing '-er xy Spätlese trocken' on the official – but in practice 'back' label of Erste Gewächse.
In my ongoing crusade to win American souls for Riesling, I have made every possible effort to refrain from taxing my readers' patience with repugnant ideological and legislative polemic. American wine lovers and wine merchants – the small but intrepid band in the trade who truly merit that title – do not deserve further hindrances in spreading the gospel of Riesling on these shores. I would much rather Germany cleaned her own dirty laundry. But the conceptual chaos has reached a point where I cannot be silent on this subject if for no other reason than because – like the growers themselves – I am forced to engage in detailed explanations of the novel, idiosyncratic and mutually exclusive standards by which wines are now routinely labeled.
If there was one refrain to be heard from German growers in recent years over and above the clamour for classification and the dictate of dryness, it was surely an even more heartfelt and far less controversial chorus of 'Simplify!'. It should be possible to simplify German labeling without standardizing the wines. As matters stand though, we have a stylistic straightjacket masquerading as a classification, and a conceptual menagerie that is multiplying uncontrollably, threatening to derail our efforts to return German Riesling to widespread attention and adoration.