2016 Jesuitengarten GG

“Some vineyards you can check week-by-week as harvest approaches,” notes Drieseberg, echoing similar comments by Eser and Spreitzer, “but Jesuitengarten has to be checked every day” because it can so quickly tip from not-quite ripe to over-ripe or from healthy to rot-tinged. He thinks his team caught the grapes at an optimal moment in 2016, though they were relatively low in acidity – resulting on my palate in a certain sense of softness and diffusion – which was a factor in deciding to ferment and age this Grosses Gewächs entirely in stainless steel. The risk is of a somewhat toothless wine, though its subtle creaminess of texture is flattering and its faint suggestions of ripe pear fruit over a bed of stone appealing. A trace of limey brightness breaks through in the otherwise soothingly-sustained finish.