German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

RHEINGAU WINES
146
On August 4th, 2003, my first day working in
the vineyards of Johannes Leitz, it was well over
100 degrees Fahrenheit. Johannes had just
returned from vacation and the rows in the
Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg resembled the
maverick hairdo of a fifteen year-old kid with a
rock-and-roll agenda. From where I was perched
steeply above the confluence of the Rhine and
Nahe rivers (both of which were lower than anyone
could remember) the water barely managed a
glimmer through the haze of the heat. As
Johannes demonstrated how to go about green
harvesting, I was crouched in the slightly less
scorching shadow that the vines offered, mindfully
cautious not to lose my footing on the dry red slate
as I followed along down the precipitous vineyard
slope which at times felt more like a precipice. You
see, looking at the Rüdesheimer Berg vineyards,
driving through them, even walking through them
cannot prepare you for actually attempting to work
in them for the first time (the incredible heat of
2003 notwithstanding).
As Johannes established the guidelines for
how to tackle the vines, I realized immediately that
I was at a great disadvantage. Not only does this
man have a fourteen foot arm span (thus needing
to adjust his footing far less than I, which is a not
insubstantial consideration when the majority of
one’s time is spent trying to navigate the precarious
balance between remaining upright and the
backward-downward pull of gravity) but his hands
are at least twice the size of the average man and
are seemingly capable of doing three things at one
time. Remember how fascinating it was when the
Tasmanian Devil would go whizzing through the
forest on Saturday morning cartoons? Johannes
moves nearly as fast, definitely with as much precision,
and with all the calm of a person knitting
wool hats for the village orphans. Meanwhile (and
I’m ashamed to report that this is not a joke) I was
completing one row to his every four. I tried to
keep up for about the first fifteen minutes . . . .
The process of green harvest is pretty common
sense: pull away excessive leaf growth, clean out
anything either dry or rotting and, most importantly,
inspect the grapes. Johannes’ instructions were
to leave only two perfectly healthy bunches per vine
shoot which sounded fine until I quickly discovered
Harvest at Leitz
by Corrie Malas
that this meant that no less than 50% (and in many
cases much more) of the what the vine had yielded
was left on the “floor.” I was shocked by this and
almost a little scared. Would my friend have anything
left to harvest if we were this rigorous in our
green harvest selection? The Farmer replied, “No
Corrie, when I am honest I must say that you are
not cutting away enough . . .” Everyone talks about
selection at harvest but the amount of selection
Corrie amongst the vines
that took place in these vineyards months before
harvest was positively mind-bending. And as it has
since been revealed, the vintners who worked this
way in 2003 have wines that share the same mineral
intensity, brilliant length and overall concentration
that I so admire in Leitz’s collection this year.
On the following days we worked Leitz’s other
Rüdesheimer Berg vineyards: Roseneck (the
steepest portion where I finally did fall, helplessly
skidding down the quartzite slope until I figured
out how to use my elbows as breaks), Rottland,
Bischofsberg and Drachenstein. I got a little faster
in my work. Johannes followed along after me less
and I learned how to agreeably drink sparkling
water by the liter. Each vineyard was left looking
tidy and serious, well-prepared for the last portion
of Germany’s hottest summer in 500 years. Every
day seemed hotter than the one that preceded it,
perhaps because it was hotter or perhaps because
there was no escaping the heat in the 95 degree
nights, where I would lay exhausted, the heat like
an immovable — almost smothering — blanket,
without air conditioning or fans, drifting off to
sleep feeling the weight of the grapes in my hands.