Dr Vino's wine blog

Thomas Haag of Schloss-Lieser, Andreas Adam of A.J. Adam, and Dorothee Zilliken of Zilliken.

Confronting a warming climate was one of the main topics at a panel discussion at the recent Rieslingfeier. Historically, Germany has been at the northern limits of wine production where the grapes struggled for ripeness. Now, warmer vintages are becoming more frequent as 2003, 2006, 2007, and the current releases from 20011 show.

David Schildknecht, perhaps the leading German wine critic in America, led the panel of four producers at Bar Boulud that included Florian Lauer, Dorothee Ziliken (Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken), Andreas Adam (A.J. Adam), and Thomas Haag (Schloss Lieser). Mosel Riesling has historically had a reputation as a light, juicy, drinkable yet filigreed wine. The challenge with global warming is that rather than struggle for ripeness and sugar, the grapes can effortlessly tack on sugar, which can lead to higher alcohol wines, richer wines or elevated residual sugar in the wines–in the worst case, wines that might lose the élan of the cooler times. The producers spoke of different tools in the toolkit of vineyard management and winemaking that they use to adjust to global warming. Read more…