Dr. DIRK RICHTER´S 2001 VINTAGE REPORT

October 2001 came in with a roar! For the first time in the last eighteen years the temperature was over 25° C and the sunshine lasted almost a month, making it a truly "Golden October".

Vintage predictions written during the cold and rainy September had to be re-written. The sugar levels of the Riesling grapes skyrocketed and all those winegrowers, who were prepared to risk a change in the weather and go for glory, delayed starting picking and were rewarded with a great vintage. In the Middle Mosel, we have not seen such results since the glorious 1959 vintage.

A cool and humid spring retarded the budding but the usual warm and sunny weather returned towards the end of May. The flowering in the second half of June was timely and without any problems and the foundations were laid for another good vintage. Shortly after this, in the Max Ferd. Richter estate, we carried out our first vendange verte in order to reduce the potential yield.

A warm and humid Jul<y and an exceptionally hot August caused a rapid development of the grapes and by the end of that month the vineyards were ten days in advance of the norm.

Our hopes were dashed by the wet September. The development of the grapes stagnated and grey botrytis attacked those vineyards which had not been sprayed at precisely the right time. However, in contrast with September 2000 when the temperatures were higher, the leaves remained healthy because the cool temperature was a protection against rot and mould. The cold also caused some grapes to fall, as it did in 1990, further reducing the potential yield.

Acidity levels were high and began to creep down, giving us the opportunity on 12 October to carry out a careful sorting of the grapes before the main vintage started. Unhealthy grapes and those affected by grey botrytis were cut, as well as dead leaves in the grape zone of the vine (leaf management), to allow the grapes to benefit from maximum sunshine and to achieve physiological ripeness.

The main vintage started on 22 October and ended on 12 November: each morning for the last two weeks the Mosel valley was fog bound but it cleared, to give a sunny afternoon and evening. As in Sauternes, this was the perfect weather for the development of noble rot and to increase the Oechsle levels in vineyards facing south and south-west. In this respect, the Middle Mosel was more blessed than other wine regions in Germany and our vineyards in Mülheim and Veldenz exceptionally so.

The Vintag exceeded all our dreams: hardly any must was lower than 90 Oechsle and there was a phalanx of noble sweet up to Beeren- and Trockenbeerenauslese. In order to offer a balanced portfolio, we shall have to sell some Ausleses as Spätleses and so on, even more so than in past vintages. For example, Richter Estate Riesling 2001 will be made entirely with Spätlese quality grapes.

The physiological ripeness of the grapes was as perfect as that in the 1997 vintage. We shall be able to offer Rieslings with the purest racy and the finest fruit aromas, plus great concentration. In contrast with the 1959 vintage, the musts in 2001 had a higher, longer keeping, expressive ripe acidity, comparable with that of 1971. The yield on our steep vineyards was only very low at 45 hl/hr, which equates with 30 hl/hr on the flat ones.

The 2001 vintage will enter a market, in which the world-wide enthusiasm for Riesling is manifest and growing. The Riesling Renaissance is here!

As in every year we await with bated breath the freezing night when we can pick our Mülheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Mülheim/Mosel, 24th of November 2001

Dr. Dirk Richter