WINE ADVOCATE 98 POINTS The 2022 Spatburgunder Hundsruck GG is coolish and intense on the spicy, fresh and peppery, beautifully concentrated nose that comes as a perfume and merges the characters of the Centgrafenberg and the Schlossberg. Earthy, herbal and coolish on the nose, with rose petal and black tea aromas, this is a silky, fresh, refined and energetic, pure, tight and textured as well as finessed Pinot with crunchy and spicy tannins and vital but fine and palate-tickling acidity and salinity. The wine is long, intense and complex, full of thrill and tension and hedonistic cherry fruit. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in April 2024. Drink date: 2028-2050. Stephan Reinhardt.
What a great collection of 2022s Sebastian and Paul Fürst have managed to create! The reds—all Pinot Noirs—are, from the first (Tradition!) to the last (Hundsruck Grosses Gewachs), the finest and best I have tasted in Germany in 25 years. These wines have never been denser, finer, more flawless, generous and more beautiful. One cannot escape their delicate seduction and wishes they could be as perfect every year!
“The 2022s have a lot of energy and liveliness,” says Sebastian Fürst at the tasting. ”Above all, the wines don't taste like a hot vintage like the 2018s [did]. The reds have a beautiful, ripe body, but they are also lively and full of tension, similar to 2019.”
The vintage fits into the series of warm vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2020. But compared to those, what makes the 2022 vintage special is that the grapes were perfectly ripe and in perfect health. “The clusters and berries remained small and there were many seedless berries, and that's what makes the vintage so generous,” says Fürst. In terms of texture and structure, the 2022 vintage differs from 2018 in that it is more classic. ”The wines have power, freshness, mintiness and an incredible amount of drive, length and energy from the ripe year, but they also combine that with great subtlety. ... For us, 2022 is therefore a very special year, when quality actually fell into our laps,” continues Furst, who, however, puts his light under the bushel in the last point.
His vineyards are getting older, but they are also being renewed and improved, for example with a Burgundian concentration of 8,500 vines to 17,000 per hectare. Other work includes terracing the steep slopes and using grazing sheep in the winter months to avoid provoking erosion damage with soil work in spring. Anyone who is innovative and invests so much can certainly do something for the class of their wines. It was also provoked by 100% whole clusters in the fermentation, which until now had only been seen in 2018. Whole clusters already play a role in the Tradition wine, 65% of which comes from old vines below the Centgrafenberg and owes its captivating charm to the youngest vines in all the crus. It is a magnificently stimulating Pinot Noir for little money. The village wines also benefit from the beautiful ripeness of the grapes and the high proportion of whole clusters in the mash fermentation.
“2022 was a dry year, but not a stressful year,” emphasizes Fürst. ”The yield was moderate to good, partly because of the small fruit.”
The stony red sandstone soils in Bürgstadt, Grossheubach and Klingenberg do not have high water-holding capacity, but there are the large forests of the Spessart and Odenwald nearby, and these are an “incredible balancing factor—our hydroelectric power station, so to speak,” says Fürst. There is forest above every one of Fürst's vineyards. “That's why the vines always have a certain vitality despite the struggle, even in dry years.” In any case, precipitation is not particularly high at 550 to 600 liters per year.
However, the resistance of his vines is also due to the extremely low yields of 20 to 40 hectoliters per hectare. The target for the Grosses Gewächs category is 30 to 35 hectoliters per hectare, but Fürst only achieves 20 to 35 hectoliters per hectare, which is maybe not surprising with only two to three bunches per vine. The final yield adjustments are made in July at the latest, if at all. In older vineyards, and Fürst has a great many of these, no further adjustments are needed at all. Paul and Sebastian Fürst have planted exclusively high-quality, mostly Burgundian genetics in the last 35-40 years; so, the low yields are usually natural. Only in 2023, due to the high winter humidity and the generous flower set, did the team halve many bunches and cut fruit on the ground. "But in 60% to 70% of the vintages, we don't have to thin out the majority of our areas at all,” says Sebastian Furst. Also, the shoots are never topped before July, so as not to oversupply the grapes with the upward striving force of the grape juices.
Compared to the open, generous 2022, the 2021 reds are still closed today. Their strength is their freshness and juicy red berry flavors. The year was difficult. Even the flowering was poor, reducing the yield by 20% to 30% from that moment on. But that was also needed in this stingy year to get enough strength into the wines. During the harvest, a lot of grapes still had to be sorted out and discarded because of acetic rot and botrytis. The 2020s, on the other hand, are much softer and perhaps don't have the depth of 2022. But then again, they don't have the rough edges of 2019 either. In the end, no two vintages are the same. Every one is different and that is what makes it so fascinating for Sebastian Fürst too. But it is clear that 2022 was a dream come true, because “if you could have wished for all the factors that ultimately make up the vintage, you would have wished for it exactly as it turned out in 2022,” says Furst.
Next year, we will take a closer look at the estate's excellent Chardonnay wines, which are among the very best in the country. By now, word should have spread that the Rieslings are outstanding, especially in the 2021 vintage (less so in 2022) and, I assume, also in 2023.
Published: Oct 31, 2024
JAMES SUCKLING - 99 POINTS The breathtaking aromas of wet earth, autumn leaves, mint and smoke are underlain by layers of red fruit. The nose is already a wonder to behold. And the concentration on the medium-bodied palate is as astonishing as the finesse and precision. But the most amazing thing of all is the extremely long and filigreed finish that just doesn’t want to let go. Drink from release. Stuart Pigott Senior Editor
What a great collection of 2022s Sebastian and Paul Fürst have managed to create! The reds—all Pinot Noirs—are, from the first (Tradition!) to the last (Hundsruck Grosses Gewachs), the finest and best I have tasted in Germany in 25 years. These wines have never been denser, finer, more flawless, generous and more beautiful. One cannot escape their delicate seduction and wishes they could be as perfect every year!
“The 2022s have a lot of energy and liveliness,” says Sebastian Fürst at the tasting. ”Above all, the wines don't taste like a hot vintage like the 2018s [did]. The reds have a beautiful, ripe body, but they are also lively and full of tension, similar to 2019.”
The vintage fits into the series of warm vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2020. But compared to those, what makes the 2022 vintage special is that the grapes were perfectly ripe and in perfect health. “The clusters and berries remained small and there were many seedless berries, and that's what makes the vintage so generous,” says Fürst. In terms of texture and structure, the 2022 vintage differs from 2018 in that it is more classic. ”The wines have power, freshness, mintiness and an incredible amount of drive, length and energy from the ripe year, but they also combine that with great subtlety. ... For us, 2022 is therefore a very special year, when quality actually fell into our laps,” continues Furst, who, however, puts his light under the bushel in the last point.
His vineyards are getting older, but they are also being renewed and improved, for example with a Burgundian concentration of 8,500 vines to 17,000 per hectare. Other work includes terracing the steep slopes and using grazing sheep in the winter months to avoid provoking erosion damage with soil work in spring. Anyone who is innovative and invests so much can certainly do something for the class of their wines. It was also provoked by 100% whole clusters in the fermentation, which until now had only been seen in 2018. Whole clusters already play a role in the Tradition wine, 65% of which comes from old vines below the Centgrafenberg and owes its captivating charm to the youngest vines in all the crus. It is a magnificently stimulating Pinot Noir for little money. The village wines also benefit from the beautiful ripeness of the grapes and the high proportion of whole clusters in the mash fermentation.
“2022 was a dry year, but not a stressful year,” emphasizes Fürst. ”The yield was moderate to good, partly because of the small fruit.”
The stony red sandstone soils in Bürgstadt, Grossheubach and Klingenberg do not have high water-holding capacity, but there are the large forests of the Spessart and Odenwald nearby, and these are an “incredible balancing factor—our hydroelectric power station, so to speak,” says Fürst. There is forest above every one of Fürst's vineyards. “That's why the vines always have a certain vitality despite the struggle, even in dry years.” In any case, precipitation is not particularly high at 550 to 600 liters per year.
However, the resistance of his vines is also due to the extremely low yields of 20 to 40 hectoliters per hectare. The target for the Grosses Gewächs category is 30 to 35 hectoliters per hectare, but Fürst only achieves 20 to 35 hectoliters per hectare, which is maybe not surprising with only two to three bunches per vine. The final yield adjustments are made in July at the latest, if at all. In older vineyards, and Fürst has a great many of these, no further adjustments are needed at all. Paul and Sebastian Fürst have planted exclusively high-quality, mostly Burgundian genetics in the last 35-40 years; so, the low yields are usually natural. Only in 2023, due to the high winter humidity and the generous flower set, did the team halve many bunches and cut fruit on the ground. "But in 60% to 70% of the vintages, we don't have to thin out the majority of our areas at all,” says Sebastian Furst. Also, the shoots are never topped before July, so as not to oversupply the grapes with the upward striving force of the grape juices.
Compared to the open, generous 2022, the 2021 reds are still closed today. Their strength is their freshness and juicy red berry flavors. The year was difficult. Even the flowering was poor, reducing the yield by 20% to 30% from that moment on. But that was also needed in this stingy year to get enough strength into the wines. During the harvest, a lot of grapes still had to be sorted out and discarded because of acetic rot and botrytis. The 2020s, on the other hand, are much softer and perhaps don't have the depth of 2022. But then again, they don't have the rough edges of 2019 either. In the end, no two vintages are the same. Every one is different and that is what makes it so fascinating for Sebastian Fürst too. But it is clear that 2022 was a dream come true, because “if you could have wished for all the factors that ultimately make up the vintage, you would have wished for it exactly as it turned out in 2022,” says Furst.
Next year, we will take a closer look at the estate's excellent Chardonnay wines, which are among the very best in the country. By now, word should have spread that the Rieslings are outstanding, especially in the 2021 vintage (less so in 2022) and, I assume, also in 2023.
Published: Oct 31, 2024
JAMES SUCKLING - 99 POINTS The breathtaking aromas of wet earth, autumn leaves, mint and smoke are underlain by layers of red fruit. The nose is already a wonder to behold. And the concentration on the medium-bodied palate is as astonishing as the finesse and precision. But the most amazing thing of all is the extremely long and filigreed finish that just doesn’t want to let go. Drink from release. Stuart Pigott Senior Editor