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Wine Description
The Story
VDP Grosse Lage denotes our absolutely finest vineyard, Kiedrich Gräfenberg. It is the source of Riesling wines that reflect expressive site-specific characteristics and have exceptional aging potential. In addition to the dry Riesling "VDP.Grosses Gewächs®", we produce classic Prädikat wines with natural, fruity sweetness from grapes grown in the Kiedrich Gräfenberg site – wines that have long been highly esteemed in the Rheingau.
Kiedrich Gräfenberg: Steep sites, Kiedricher Kosterberg, Kiedrich Turmberg and Kiedrich Gräfenberg, and their extraordinarily physiological ripe grapes yield truly great crops that promise wines of great extract (substance) and perceptible mineral tones that reflect their appellations of origin.
In the 12th century, the renowned site was still known as “mons rhingravii” (literally, the hill of the Rhine counts). By 1258 and 1259, documents referred to it as “Grevenberg” – southwest-facing site with deep to medium-deep soil, predominantly stony, fragmented phyllite and dramatic inclines of up to 60 %.
Until secularization in 1803, large portions of the Gräfenberg site numbered among the vineyard holdings of the monastery Kloster Eberbach. Even in the decades thereafter, the site was owned by only a few wine estates.
At the end of the 19th century, Gräfenberg began its rise to fame. During this time, when Rhine Rieslings reached the height of their reputation, Gräfenberg Rieslings from the House of Dr. Weil graced the tables of European kings and emperors as well as the wine lists of leading hotels throughout Europe, from St.Petersburg to Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London. Gräfenberg and its neighboring site, Turmberg, consistently ranked among the finest sites in vineyard classifications of that time.
To this day, Gräfenberg has retained its great renown. At Christie’s rare wine auction in 1999, a 1921 Kiedricher Berg Auslese-Growth Dr.Weil fetched the world’s highest bottle price for a white wine of the 20th century: DM 20,000. In the course of its centennial celebration in 2010, “VDP. The Prädikat Wine Estates” held an auction at which Weingut Robert Weil once again achieved a world record price – this time, for a wine making its debut presentation: 2003 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Trocken - beerenauslese 316°Oechsle Gold Capsule fetched € 5,117.00 per bottle.
Gräfenberg is also the only site in the world in which grapes of every quality category up to and including Trockenbeerenauslese have been harvested every year without exception since the 1989 vintage.
The stony-gritty soils of the Gräfenberg are deep to mediumdeep. Phyllite is a major component, interspersed with loess and loam. This soil composition, with its high proportion of stones and water-retaining layers, provides the site with an optimal and balanced water supply.
Tasting Notes: Stunning Trockenbeerenauslese with beautiful botrytized fruit; deep and opulent flavors accentuate the seductive dance between racy acidity and high levels of natural sweetness; a wine to put down and age for many years to come.
Wine Information
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.
TASTING NOTES
Stunning Trockenbeerenauslese with beautiful botrytized fruit; deep and opulent flavors accentuate the seduc- tive dance between racy acidity and high levels of natural sweetness; a wine to put down and age for many years to come.
Vintage 2019
2018 WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR THE WARMEST GROWTH PERIOD ON RECORD, BUT 2019 HAD ITS OWN VERY HOT AND ESPECIALLY
ABOVE-AVERAGE TEMPERATURES AND WARM, DRY SOILS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR LED TO A VERY EARLY BUDBREAK ARRIVING BEFORE APRIL WAS EVEN HALFWAY DONE. AN UNUSUALLY COLD MAY THEN PUT THE BRAKES ON THIS 2-WEEK HEAD START AND FLOWERING ULTIMATELY ENDED IN MID-JUNE, ROUGHLY IN LINE WITH THE LONG-TERM AVERAGE.
DESPITE THE DROUGHT, THE VINES DEVELOPED WELL OVER THE COURSE OF THE HOT SUMMER AND VERAISON FOR OUR RIESLING FRUIT BEGAN IN MID-AUGUST, ALMOST A WEEK AHEAD OF STATISTICAL EXPECTATIONS.
DEVELOPMENT PICKED UP MOMENTUM RAPIDLY THANKS TO THE TRULY STUNNING WEATHER OF LATE AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER AND THE GENERAL GOOD WATER RETENTION IN OUR KIEDRICH SITES. DESPITE THE DROUGHT, OUR VINEYARDS REMAINED IN BEAUTIFUL SHAPE RIGHT UP THROUGH HARVEST.
A WONDERFUL RIPENING PERIOD REWARDED US WITH OPTIMALLY HEALTHY AND INTENSELY DELICIOUS GRAPES, AND A HARVEST IN PHENOMENAL WEATHER STARTING IN THE SECOND HALF OF SEPTEMBER.
ANY WINEMAKER WOULD HAVE REJOICED AT OUR CULL OF GUTSWEIN (ESTATE) AND ORTSWEIN (VILLAGE) RIESLINGS. YET THE 2019 VINTAGE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS AN AUTUMN OF ENVY, AS HARVEST YIELDS VARIED GREATLY FROM LOCATION TO LOCATION, WITH SOME ESTATES ONLY ABLE TO BRING IN HALF OF THEIR ANTICIPATED VOLUMES.
OUR YIELDS HERE AT WEINGUT ROBERT WEIL FORTUNATELY STOOD ONLY A FEW PERCENTAGE POINTS BELOW THE ANNUAL AVERAGE, BUT IN UNIFORMLY PHENOMENAL QUALITY: GUTSWEIN AND ORTSWEIN ARE FANTASTIC ... THE DRY SINGLE VINEYARD LAGENWEIN ARE STUNNING ... THE NATURALLY SWEET KABINETT AND SPÄTLESE WINES ARE INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL ... AND ALTHOUGH EXTREMELY SMALL IN QUANTITY, THE NOBLE SWEET SPECIALTIES ARE A DREAM ...MUST WEIGHTS FOR THE TROCKENBEERENAUSLESE RUNNING UP TO 209 °OE, WITH OUTSTANDING ACIDITY AND
PRESSED FROM THE VERY FINEST BERRIES.
LOOKING BACK, 2019 WAS CERTAINLY A DEMANDING VINTAGE. YET IT WAS ALSO ONE THAT REWARDED OUR CONSTANT LABORS IN THE VINEYARD WITH STUNNING, HEALTHY AND HIGH-QUALITY FRUIT – THE FOUNDATION FOR LONG-LIVED WINES GUARANTEED TO GRACE CELLARS FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.
AS ALWAYS, WE OWE OUR SUCCESS TO THE INCREDIBLE QUALITY OF THE KIEDRICH HILLSIDE SITES AND THE REMARKABLE HARD WORK OF OUR HIGHLY MOTIVATED WEIL TEAM!
