Horn at the top

The origin was and is always the same. However, the name of the wine has changed several times over the years. Marketed in 2008 as a dry Riesling Spätlese from the Stadeck Spitzberg with the additions Alte Reben and vom Pelosol, since 2015 the Im Horn vineyard has adorned the label instead of the single vineyard under wine law. Michael Beck, owner of the Beck – Hedesheimer-Hof winery in Stadecken-Elsheim in Rhine-Hesse, has been doing without the predicate and other additional information for a good ten years now. A change that is primarily due to the spirit of the times. However, this transformation has never had any influence on the wine itself, which we were able to taste from seven different vintages.

The deep and calcareous soils in the Stadeck Spitzberg are characterised by pararendzina and pelosol. The clayey pelosol is characterised by a high swelling capacity. In dry phases, cracks form through which rainwater can seep down quickly. The pararendzina – here based on loess – on the other hand, has a very good storage capacity for plant-available soil water. The soils are rich in nutrients, well aerated and rootable.

The Stadeck Spitzberg is mostly exposed to the west. Where the hillside turns to the south lies the steep Im Horn vineyard, whose outstanding quality has been known in Michael Beck's family for generations.

When he was young, Michael Beck said that he hardly thought about the ageing potential of his wines. But at some point, he became interested in following the development of his dry Rieslings over a longer period of time and began to put back several bottles of his top dry Riesling year after year.

We tasted the 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2020 vintages and did not expect the 2008 of all vintages to be the best. The vertical also revealed a few other surprises.

2011 went down in history as a very hot and dry year. In many places, the vines came under drought stress. At the same time, yields got out of hand, so that the targeted yield limits were often significantly exceeded. Quite a few wines from this vintage therefore appear rather pale. However, the 2011 in our tasting was able to completely escape this problem. After more than ten years, it is still quite fresh. It impresses with a subtle and complex aroma with fine fruit flavours and a floral touch.

We consistently perceived a clear minerality and vegetal flavour in all the wines, naturally with varying intensity depending on the vintage. Fruity flavours were sometimes more, sometimes less present, but were never in the foreground. The acidity always appeared ripe and usually embedded in a creamy structure.

If there has been any stylistic development at all over the years, we felt that this took place with the 2018 vintage. The representative of this hot and dry year, of all vintages, not only presented itself to us with great vitality, but also surprisingly taut and focussed – in clear contrast to the general vintage trend.

2013 was also not an easy year for winegrowers. However, we were never able to understand the criticism voiced early on in the wine scene that the acidity levels were allegedly too high. In fact, many wines from the vintage mature excellently, and we are pretty sure that in blind tastings today, hardly anyone would recognise a 2013 based on its acidity structure. We are therefore not at all surprised that Michael Beck's 2013 has a ripe, vibrant and definitely piquant acidity, which does not dominate in any way.

The 2020 is cast in the same mould. We do not attribute the fact that it is still difficult to judge at the moment to the exceptional use of the screw cap this year, but rather to the fact that it simply still needs time.

While 2008 was never regarded as an outstanding vintage in the past, from today's perspective it should be assessed in a slightly more differentiated way. Many wines from this year are currently in excellent form and have matured charmingly. The 2008 in our vertical was no exception. In fact, we found it to be the most complete and balanced wine in our tasting. We rated it accordingly highly.

The 2013 shows striking parallels to the 2015. Both Rieslings, which were also the most fruit-orientated wines at the vertical, have an intense pineapple note. However, the 2015 seemed decidedly monolithic at the time of our tasting and we can only make a vague prediction regarding its development.

The 2014 caused great astonishment, triumphing over the universally problematic vintage and revealing new facets with every sip.

We observed the development of the wines over three days without recognising even a vaguely uniform pattern across the vintages. This is because each wine showed a highly individual development curve. The 2008 wine degraded continuously over the observation period, but remained at a high level until the third day. The 2011, on the other hand, slumped significantly on the second day but, to our great surprise, recovered almost completely on the third. The 2013 remained stable for two days, but then dropped significantly. We noticed a clear fatigue in the 2014 after just 24 hours, which then continued. After 72 hours, the 2015 was just as closed as it was at the beginning. We could not recognise any change in the 2018 during this time either. The 2020 increased from day to day.

We changed glasses a few times during the tasting and used the Riesling Grand Cru and the Burgundy glass, both from Riedel's Vinum series. Without looking for Chardonnay attributes – we are rather critical of the general “Burgundianisation” of Riesling anyway – we actually saw the Burgundy glass as having better development potential for the highly exciting Rieslings that Michael Beck presented to us and which, in our opinion, can certainly compete with many much more highly decorated wines.