From 50-year-old vines in the Westhofen premier cru Steingrube and vinified in 600-liter halbstücks until March this year, the 2021 Weisser Burgunder Réserve opens with a clear and polished, very elegant and finely mineral or chalky bouquet with noble sur lies aromas. Elegant and refined on the palate, this is an enormously saline and finessed as well as tensioned Pinot Blanc with elegant flow and a very nice, intense and finely aromatic but also structural finish. The wine is tight, dense, complex, long and intense and a beautiful wine to be served during dinner. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in July 2023.
Old vines in particular withstood the summer drought of the 2022 vintage, reports Philipp Wittmann, who removed all fruit from all plants under five years old. Vine age was also a decisive selection criterion during the harvest, as old roots reach so deep that they can reach the water reserves in the soil. This kept the vines vital, "and you could see that very clearly during the harvest," says Wittmann. In the old vineyards, the must weights were 10° Oechsle higher than in the poorer and younger vineyards. The maxim was to produce wines with finesse and elegance despite the heat and dryness, at least as much as possible. This naturally resulted in self-imposed losses in quantity, for example in Nierstein, where Wittmann was only able to harvest 28 hectoliters from 1.2 hectares of vines. "In extremely dry conditions, yields have to remain low, so we kept cutting grapes where necessary. You have to recognize the differences in the vineyard and adapt your measures accordingly. Blanket solutions would often have been the wrong ones."
In order not to lose freshness, finesse and elegance in 2022, Wittmann dispensed with maceration times and instead gently crushed the grapes or processed some of them as whole grapes in the closed, barely rotating tank press at low pressure, at most after a short standing time. This resulted in musts rich in finesse, which proved particularly successful with the Pinot wines, which Wittmann is getting better and better at, including in 2022. The Chardonnay, Pinot Banc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir were harvested on 10 consecutive days right at the beginning in "extremely dry" weather. "Without any over-ripening," as Wittmann emphasizes.
Then came the first rainfall, the effect of which could not initially be seen in the vineyards, dry as they were. There were no extreme rainfalls anyway, and when it did rain, the water dried up quickly. Careful canopy management had also ensured this. At most, the harvest had to be paused for three days or used for negative pre-selections. After that, however, things continued "relaxed," says Wittmann. "The harvest weather was great and the grapes were perfectly healthy."
The Rieslings were harvested in a good two and a half weeks from mid-September. Three Auslese wines followed in early October, and the 2022 harvest was completed on October 8.
The domaine's average yield was an extremely moderate 40 hectoliters per hectare and delivered "very good qualities." The Gutswein Riesling and the GGs lacked 25% of the potential yield due to early negative selections.
The musts of the vintage fermented well, and the wines bottled this summer are balanced and rich in finesse and, above all, rich in aroma. Overall, Wittmann has once again succeeded in producing a great collection, with the complex yet accessible Morstein GG at the top.
