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Wine Description
The Story
The founder of the estate, Dr. Robert Weil, purchased his first vineyards on the Kiedricher Berg in 1867, at a time when he was still a German professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. With the approach of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, he was forced to leave France. He settled in Wiesbaden, where he worked as a journalist, and Kiedrich, where he expanded his vineyard holdings by acquiring the best sites on the Kiedricher Berg. Thanks to his unwavering commitment to quality-oriented viticulture, his foresight, and his willingness to invest in the estate, it developed quickly and its wines were soon celebrated in international circles. Spätlese and Auslese wines from Weingut Robert Weil graced the table of many European imperial and royal houses as the white counterparts of the Bordeaux reds.
Today, the estate’s 90 ha (222 acres) of vineyards are planted 100% with Riesling.
Throughout its history the estate has always focused on the Riesling grape and adhered to strict, quality-ori- ented practices in the vineyard – such as stringent pruning to control yields and selective harvesting by hand – and in the cellar, where the wines are vinified as gently as possible. This unwavering and uncompromising quality management is central to Weingut Robert Weil’s unbroken streak of producing wines at every Prädikat classification, up to and including Trockenbeerenauslese, for every vintage since 1989. The estate’s dedication to Riesling since 1875 has led numerous observers of the international wine world to regard Weingut Robert Weil, with its “château character”, as a worldwide symbol of German Riesling culture.
Vintage 2007
Germany Vintage Report 2007 / The phenomena of climate change and the resulting global warming also affected the year 2007. Once again, meteorological observations made it possible to establish record data: after a winter that was clearly too mild, the Spring weather in April and May was extremely warm. Additionally, although summer was often not very "summer", temperatures recorded during the growing season were the highest since record keeping began (1884), even breaking the record set in 2003.
Naturally, these climatic conditions had a considerable impact on the vines. A very hot April led to an extremely early explosion. Warm temperatures continued into May, so the vines flowered during the second half of the month – the earliest flowering since time immemorial. The heat lasted until early June and by mid-June the vegetation was more than three weeks ahead of schedule. The rather average weather during the rest of the summer reduced this lead. Nevertheless, the grapes began to ripen in the Rheingau on August 3 – precisely from the “record year” 2003. The difference is that the development of the grapes (after early flowering) continued more slowly and evenly , thanks to a better distribution of sunshine and precipitation than in 2003.
Due to this perfect weather regime, the vines had an optimal supply of water and nutrients, and despite the relatively early harvest (due to early flowering), the Riesling grapes could remain on the vines for a long time – an important factor for this grape variety.
Even the earliest harvested grapes had exceptionally high extract values (even higher than in 2005 and 2006) and showed perfect physiological maturity and well-developed aromas. As such, the early harvest yielded fine Kabinett and light Spätlese qualities which will be bottled as Qualitätswein (Gutsriesling).
Overall, ideal weather conditions allowed us to smoothly extend the harvest over seven weeks and selectively harvest the best grapes for the other Prädikat wines. For the 19th year in a row, we were able to harvest all Prädikat, including Trockenbeerenauslese with up to 256 degrees Oechsle, at our Grand Cru sites Kiedricher Gräfenberg and Kiedricher Turmberg.
In addition to the exceptionally high quality of the 2007 vintage, the wonderful climatic conditions of the year allowed us to obtain a higher yield. After five short years, this brings us back to our long-term average.