2010 Rheingau - Schloss Schonborn

Peter Barth

I really have not visited many estates in the Rheingau. Just Spreitzer, which was a lovely visit, and is on my short list for the top estates in the Rheingau, but after my tasting with Peter Barth at Schloss Schonborn, they have zipped to the top. The Rheingau, historically is the grand-daddy of all German wine regions, with all the great castles, and estates, like Schonborn who have been making wine for 600+ years. But many estates lost their reputations at various points during the 50's, 60's and 70's for various reasons. But in the early 2000's and in some cases before that the great Schloss' started to rebuild their reputations. This is a very good thing as Schloss Reinhartshausen, Schloss Vollrads, Schloss Johannisberg and the great Schloss Schonborn have some of the best vineyards in all of the Rheingau. They have over 80 different vineyard sites, have been continuously owned by the same family since 1349, which is 27 generations if you are counting at home. FYI they did de-acidify in 2010 and out of all the estates I taste that did de-acidify, they did it the best.

The Schloss Schonborn, under the guidance of Peter Barth, who is the technical director and has been at the estate since 2001 is doing an exemplary job and it shows in the wines. They get better every year My tasting was with him and we only had an hour, and we got to it. Peter is smart and very funny and knows the estate and history like the back of his hand. Schonborn is in very capable hands.

Estate Wines


2010 "Pink" - A snappy little Spatburgunder Rose with bubble gummy flavors on a nice elegant frame. Good minerality and density. I liked. A throw back wine. In throw lots of it back in an evening.

2010 Weissburgunder Trocken - Beautiful minerality with a ripe and juicy palate. Pears and apples galore. Good persistence. These Estate wines from Schonborn are easy to drink and technically correct.

2010 Riesling Trocken - This clocks in at 8 grams of RS. Low acid here, which means there might have been to much de-acidification on this wine. But ripe and chewy and easy to drink. Delicious.

2010 Riesling Feinherb - This clocks in at 17 grams of R.S. Lovely, ripe, elegant, soft with great purity. Very good.

2010 Riesling - We have around 40 grams of R.S. here. Touch of sulfur on the nose and also some powdered sugar. Candied peaches as well. Elegant and soft. Fun and easygoing wine.

Single Vineyard Wines


2010 Hochheimer Kirchenstuck Trocken - Now the wines start to get more serious and interesting. Beautiful, high-toned nose of minerals, fried chicken (yep) and some delicate melon fruit. Great acids and grip on the palate. Ripe, clean and pure. Excellent wine.

2010 Hattenheimer Nussbrunen Trocken - A whisper of minerality on the somewhat closed nose. So elegant it is remarkable and must be noted that this wine is like a liquid cloud on a bed of minerals. A water be dof course. I always find wines from the Nussbrunnen so elegant.

2010 Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg Trocken - Mineral and ripe with excellent purity but holding something in reserve. Need to revisit.

2010 Winkeler Hasenprung - This was maybe the best of the four on that particular day. Dense wine with a lovely nose of powdered sugar. Full of minerality and vivid fruit. Spectacular.

Erstes Gewachs Wines


2010 Domdechaney EG - I love this vineyard and the Kunstler version is one of my favorite wines in all of Germany but at Schonborn they own most of the vineyard and Kunstler only owns a small slice.
Mineral, ripe and rich wine with gobs of yellow fruits and a persistent finish. Great stuff.

2010 Berg Schlossberg EG - Huge nose of minerals and slate. So aromatic. I wrote WOW!!!! in my notes after smelling this wine. Acid a bit lowish but super concentrated and powerful as Berg Schlossberg can be. Good spice on the finish.

2010 Pfaffenberg EG - Really closed in on itself. Huge wine though. Brooding. Very ripe and layered with great fruit and outstanding length, but this needs 3-4 years to really start to come in to its own. Even with rigorous coaxing this remained shy.

2010 Marcobrunn EG - Another closed beast. Damson nose but so pure. So textured and ripe. Amazingly clean and concentrated with loads of spice. Years to go on this baby.

Feinherb and Pradikat Wines


2010 Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg Feinherb - Almost pitch perfect feinherb. Mineral and just plain lovely wine. Dense for a feinherb but still great with grippy acids and so elegant. Amazing.

2010 Pfaffenberg Kabinett - This has around 45 grams of R.S. Closed nose but ripe and silky wine. Elegant, juicy, mineral and more mineral. Stunner of a Kabby and strikingly mineral.

2010 Marcobrunn Kabinett - 45 grams of R.S. here. Mineral and deep with lovely peach skin aromas. Nose a bit closed but Marcobrunn is a brooding youngster in most cases. Lovely, spice, grip and length. A rock star.

2010 Marcobrunn Spatlese - 70 grams of R.S. here. Very mineral nose with an elegant and silky texture. Pure and clean with stone fruits and lovely flesh. Awesome, but the next wine was awesomer.

2010 Pfaffenberg Spatlese - This has a special label and Peter Barth said it was perfectly balanced Spatlese as it had 9.5 grams of acid and 95 grams of R.S. which he said is the perfect equation for perfect balance. If the sugar is 10 times the acids then you are in rarefied air. Nose was slammed shit but oh man was this wine balanced and gorgeous. Stunning. Beyond balanced.

And that wraps up my 2010 trip. This summer I will be doing France and Germany. Can't wait to go back.