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  • Country ranking ?

    68
  • Producer ranking ?

    27
  • Decanting time

    -
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Mild Fish

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Wine Information

Weingut Robert Weil.

The rise, fall and and rebirth of german wine can be represented byh the fate of Weingut Robert Weil.

The prices paid for german wines a century ago were at the level of, or in many cases higher than the price of the best wines from Bordeaux or Burgundy.
An example is Robert Weil’s famous 1893 Gräfenberg Riesling of which the imperial austrian court ordered 800 bottles at a price of 16 gold-mark per bottle. This represents roughly a value of 800 Euro per bottle in todays terms.
1893 was the vintage that made Weil become one of the most searched for wines of Germany, only a few decades after the winery was established. The wines of Weingut Weil were soon drunk at the courts in Europe and celebrated by connaisseurs worldwide.

Its founder, Dr. Robert Weil, was a germanistic professor at the University of Sorbonne in Paris but as the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 was threatening he was forced to leave France. He took up a career as a journalist in Wiesbaden near the small village of Kiedrich, where his brother was working as a priest as well as leading their famous choir.
The wines of Rheingau fascinated Weil and he bought his first vineyards there in 1868 and in 1875 he moved to Kiedrich where he obtained the manor of the late Sir John Sutton, an english baronet who had settled in there in the 1850s.
Dr. Weil expanded the size of his vineyards by buying the best plots of vineyards as they came on the market. He was particularly impressed by the quality of the vineyard site „Gräfenberg“ just east of the village.
The „Lage“ or site „Gräfenberg“ was first mentioned as „mons rhingravii“ at the end of the 12th century and named as „Grevenberg“ in 1258. Its size is 10,8 ha and having a perfect south-western exposition. Ist slopes vary between gentle 10% to more dramatic 60% in parts. This site has a microclimate affected by optimal sun exposition to assure good ripeness of the grapes as well as good areation by cool winds from the Taunus mountain range. The deep and medium-deep soils contain layers of stony, fragmented phyllite mixed with loess and loam. This leads to roots being able to reach deep into the ground which is ideal for the mineral complexity of the wine as well as a reservoir of water in very dry vintages preventing stress of the vines. Because of this microclimate one is able to pick late in the season, something which is of extreme importance since the combination of warm temperatures during the day and cold nights lead to great extract of flavour and complexity of the wines.

Rheingau is closer to Burgundy than Bordeaux in its vineyard structure, having some of the most distinct terroir characteristics with great sites on steep terrases as well as more simple sites without great personality.

To make great wine you need a great „terroir“ – a vague expression meaning anything from its soil, sunshine hours to the influence of rivers, neighbouring mountains and forests. It was the great „Lagen“ that made the best wines from Germany famous and brought the corresponding prices.
In an attack of madness the german government decided in 1971 to erase these distinctions. Where centuries had shown the difference between great sites and very common sites through the distinct names, these were forbidden and names were given to „Grosslagen“ confusing these with the old respected names. This was equality in its very worst form and only popular with the large number of winegrowers not being willing or able to produce good quality. This led to a lake of indifferent watery wines pepped up with sugar using sweet concentrated grapejuice.
It has taken 30 years for dedicated winegrowers to painstakingly build up the reputation so dramatically wasted by bureaucrats and politicians. After decades of fighting with the bureaucratic machinery one was finally able to produce a classification of sorts, where „Gräfenberg“ was classified as Erstes Gewächs – corresponding to a Grand Cru in Burgundy.

The 1970s and 1980s were difficult times for quality-minded growers, partly due to difficult general financial conditions with the oilcrisis and massive inflations. But in a larger part due to the loss of quality and confusion regarding nomenclature. One great problem german wine still suffer under is that their wine labels are confusing regarding quality and style. It is difficult for others than well-informed collectors to know if the wine bought or ordered at a restaurant is dry, semi-sweet or sweet. This has led to wine drinkers taking the easy way out by ordering a Chablis or varietal Chardonnay rather than a Riesling.

Apart from great terroir you also need money to invest in the vineyards and wineries.
This was a problem for most quality minded producers during this time, Weil being no exception. The inheritance problem caused by the early death of Wilhelm Weil’s father led to the sale of the winery to the japanese Suntory corporation. The new owners provided needed capital for the necessary investments and made the brilliant decision of leaving the management in the hands of Robert Weil’s greatgrandson Wilhelm Weil. He was born in the difficult vintage 1963, grew up on the estate and went on to study oenology as well as marketing at the famous research facility of Geisenheim only a few kilometers from home.
With respect for the terroir and history of its wines he led the quest of restoring the Robert Weil winery to ist former glory.

Rheingau and Weil is synonymus with Riesling, this queen of all grape varieties. It is fortunately finally being back in fashion. Experienced wine lovers and wine authors have always preached the gospel of Riesling, but until recently it mostly fell on deaf ears. But an increasing worldwide tendency to production of heavily oaked wines with high alcohol levels, lacking personality and complexity have lead to a renewed interest and demand for „drinking“ rather than „tasting“ wines. The developement of these monster wines are partly due to the increase of wine critics that taste rather than drink. High alcohol and a massive dosis of toasted oak can too easily be confused with quality, especially when very young. Another cause may well be the effect of global warming. These higher temperatures have lead to riper grapes with lower acidity and more sugar, meaning higher potential alcohol.

Rheingau is certainly a region that has been profiting by warmer temperatures over the last years. Riesling can better cope with hotter climates due to its structure, clarity and refreshing acidity than eg. Chardonnay. It also means that the risk of poor vintages in Rheingau so common during the 1970s and 80s has become smaller.

It will however be interesting to see in as far as the style of wine from a specific wine site will change. I know of winegrowers that have bought vineyards in until now considered too cold sites as these may be the sites that in the future may produce the elegance and finesse associated with great Riesling.

Wilhelm Weil is a person always looking for perfection in all that has to do with his wines and walking the fine line between tradition and innovation and is certainly not resting on his laurels. He has won just about all awards he could possibly win but he is still chasing that dream of his. This is for his best wines to again reach the status of the Grand Crus of Burgundy and Premier Crus of Bordeaux.
I personally don’t see why a „Gräfenberg“ should cost less than a „Montrachet“ and am convinced that Wilhelm Weil will see this happen in the not too distant future.

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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.

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Written Notes

Another amazingly good young but super serious wine wine. This has potential to be a perfect one. Still light goldish in colour, looks as fat and intense as it tastes. Incredible nose of sweet exotic fruits and smoke. Full bodied, very sweet and big, yet ultimately balanced with a good backbone and exotic fruits, spices and minerals galore. Wonderful texture . Lots of future promise in this one.
  • 95p
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Information

Origin

Kiedrich, Rheingau

Other wines from this producer

Burg Scharfensteiner

Kiedricher Berg Auslese

Kiedricher Gräfenberg

Kiedricher GräfenBerg Auslese

Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling EG

Kiedricher Riesling Trocken

Kiedricher Wasseros Riesling Spätlese

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Beerenauslese

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Eiswein

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Grosses Gewächs

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling TBA

Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Trocken GG

Kiedrich Klosterberg

Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Auslese

Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Spätlese

Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Trocken

Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling

Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Auslese

Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Beerebauslese

Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Spätlese

Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese

Monte Nostrum

Rheingau Riesling Spätlese

Rheingau Riesling Tradition

Rheingau Riesling Trocken

Riesling Kabinett Trocken

Riesling Kiedricher Gräfenberg Trockenbeerenauslese Goldkapsel

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