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  • Wine average?

    94 Tb
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    1
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News

A milestone in the history of the Rheingau Riesling dry! 98/100 Points!

 

"Produced for the first time since 1921, Weil's 2018 Riesling Monte Vacano offers a very clear, pure, fresh, refined and flinty quartzite bouquet with an intense, perfectly ripe lemon and white peach aroma that represents the coolish and crystalline soul of this special selection from a particular phyllite section within the Grosse Lage Gräfenberg. With the historical cadastral name Lay, it is located at the transition from the Gräfenberg to the Turmberg and adds a unique, absolutely fabulous Riesling to the Weil range. On the palate, this is full-bodied, intense, dense, highly elegant and seamlessly textured; thus, it's an incredibly fine and balanced dry Rheingau classic with great purity and a sustainable and energetic finish. The wine is enormously dense and intense yet also finessed and perfectly balanced due to its delicate yet structuring tannins and this ripe, fine and elegant 2018 acidity. The finish is clear, crystalline and salty, with this typical slate salivation on the finish. This is a bone-dry Riesling and this is what makes it so perfectly balanced and lean as well as tensioned and exciting. This is one of the finest young Rheingau Rieslings I have ever tasted, and I am very sure it is a classic that will still be spoken about in decades. Aged on the lees for for 22 months (with no addition of sulfur) the Monte Vacano is something completely different from the Gräfenberg Grand Cru: not as powerful, rich and mighty but unrivaled in its purity, finesse and elegance. Any price is well deserved. 1,650 liters have been produced, which made 1,200 bottles and 300 magnums (auction price: 520 euros net). A 12-liter Balthasar bottle has been auctioned recently for 18,000 euros net. Tasted twice, once in August 2020 and again in March 2021. When the founder of the domain, Dr. Robert Weil, began to buy vineyards in the Kiedrich mountain in 1875, he was able to acquire this special parcel thanks to the dowry of his wife, from the family of the Nobles of Vacano. From then on, the Riesling from this parcel bore the name Monte Vacano and remained a "family affair" exclusively reserved for the Weil and Vacano families. In the 1920s, this tradition fell dormant but has now been resumed with the 2018 vintage, which sets a milestone in the history of dry Rheingau Riesling.

For years, Wilhelm Weil has been producing one of the finest dry Rieslings in Germany, the Kiedrich Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs. However, following an old family tradition that was discontinued 100 years ago but is now a popular trend, Weil decided to top the finest wine of the domain with a rare Über wine from a very special plot and with a very special quality. The resulting wine is the Monte Vacano (1,200 bottles for the general market, plus another 300 which are kept at the domain). Sourced from a phyllite plot named Lay that connects the Gräfenberg with the Turmberg and aged in a large oak cask for nearly two years, the Monte Vacano is a fascinatingly pure, fresh and elegant as well as finessed and tensioned dry Rheingau classic that can age for decades. Compared with the Monte Vacano, the 2018 GG from the Gräfenberg is a completely different wine: richer, more powerful and compact, provided with tight tannins and stimulating phenolic grip. The GG is a wine that should be aged for several years; the Monte Vacano, however, does fascinate my palate. I'll report on the 2019 Monte Vacano in late summer or early autumn."

 

 

The 2018 vintage

Another "Summer of the Century" is in the books...

and this one began in April!

Warmest growth cycle on record!

And despite all that, our Kiedrich hillside vineyards never needed extra sun protection!

Weingut Robert Weil Vintage Report 2018.pdf

 

 

 

BWW  2018 - Best Wine in the World Competition!

We are happy to announce, that our wines are included in the new competition here on Facebook! Please make sure to leave a vote for all our wines, including our finest wines from our VDP.Grosse Lage Kiedrich Gräfenberg!

 

 

 

 

The maturity of our Riesling grapes! It looks great! Although mother nature has challenged us in the last months quite hard!

 

 

 

 

For the next generations... our wine library at Weingut Robert Weil is well stocked!

 

 

 

 

Bud break in our vineyards look just perfect

 

 

 

The spring is coming! We have a lot of work in our vineyards!

 

 

 

Last check for the noble sweet wines from vintage 2015 with the winemakers before bottling…

 

 

The three-month pruning marathon has begun!
This work will have a major influence on the quality of the 2016 vintage!

 

 

 

 

 

Harvest finished - minus only Eiswein!

Attention! Wines at work! Our full range - minus only Eiswein - are now in the cellar. A truly stunning vintage with perfectly ripe, healthy and, most importantly, tasty grapes! Beautiful acidity! Late-developing botrytis and stunning must weights up to 200 °Oe!

 

International wine luminaries come together at Weingut Robert Weil! (July 17, 2015)

Summer Festival at Weingut Robert Weil together with FINE Das Weinmagazin /Work hard, play hard.
That's the philosophy at Weingut Robert Weil where we believe that celebration requires every bit the same passion and dedication as hard work.Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who helped make our summer festival such a huge success!

 

 

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from France: Château Giscours, Château Phélan Ségur, Château L'Eglise Clinet, Jean-Louis Chave, Hermitage, KRUG

from Italy: Sassicaia, Tenuta Degli Dei, Tenuta San Leonardo, Tenuta Monteverro, Weingut J. Hofstätter, Omina Romana, Luce della Vite
from Spain: Numanthia, Abadia Retuerta, Pesquera
from Austria: Österreich: Weingut Franz Hirtzberger, Schloss Gobelsburg, Weingut Erich & Walter Polz
from overseas: Bodega Chacra, Patagonien, Argentina, Terrazas de los Andes, Mendoza, Argentina, Chateau Montelena Winery, Napa, California, Cloudy Bay, New Zealand
from Germany: Fritz Haag, Dönnhoff, K.F.Groebe, Dr. Loosen, Markgraf von Baden, Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Meyer-Näckel, Josten & Klein, Weingut Dautel, Schloss Proschwitz, Juliusspital, Bürgerspital, Rudolf Fürst, Weingut Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken, Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm

 

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History

Vines have been cultivated at Weingut Robert Weil for four generations. The founder of the estate, Dr. Robert Weil, purchased the first vineyards on the Kiedricher Berg in 1867. At the time, he was still a professor of German at the Sorbonne in Paris, until events prior to the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) forced him to leave. He bought the manor of the late English baronet Sir John Sutton in Kiedrich – a village in the Rheingau dating from 905 – and settled there.

 

Sutton, quite a wealthy man and a patron of the arts, first came to Kiedrich in 1857, in the course of one of his art tours. He fell in love with its unique ensemble of architectural gems – the Gothic church St. Valentine; numerous aristocratic estates dating from the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque periods; and the Scharfenstein castle ruins of the Mainz electors – as well as the vineyards and forests of the sur- rounding countryside. Until his death in 1873, he invested considerable sums to maintain the precious church and its choir, famous for its German rendition of Gregorian chants.

 

As of 1875, in addition to his work as a journalist, Dr. Robert Weil expanded his wine estate by acquiring the finest parcels of the Kiedricher Berg. Thanks to his uncompromising, quality- orientated viticultural philosophy, the estate developed quickly and its wines were soon distributed internationally. As such, Riesling Auslesen from the House of Dr. Robert Weil were served as the white wine counterparts of great Bordeaux wines at many European imperial or royal courts. A Gräfenberg Riesling from the 1893 vintage helped spread the estate’s renown throughout the world. The royal court of Austria purchased 800 bottles of the 1893 Auslese from the “Kiedricher Berg” for sixteen gold marks per bottle – an astonishing price even in those days when Rheingau Rieslings were already the most expensive growths in the world of wine.

 

Not only the nobility drank Weil Rieslings at the turn of the century, but also the burgeoning middle classes. Auslesen from the Kiedricher Berg were on the wine list of the Hotel Adlon in Berlin as well as those of other distinguished hotels throughout Europe. In 1928, during its maiden voyage to New York, the wine list of the airship “LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin” featured a “1920 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Trockenbeerenauslese Best Cask No. 20” from the House of Weil.

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Vineyards

The quality and unmistakable identity of a wine originate in the vineyard. The renown of a site, which is determined by historical as well as microclimatic and geological circumstances, plays a role, but strict quality-oriented vineyard management is the decisive factor. Weingut Robert Weil’s vineyards on the heights at the foothills of the Taunus Hills number among the Rheingau’s finest sites. The vines range in age up to more than 50 years and plant density is from 5,000 to 6,000 vines per hectare (ca. 2.5 acres).

 

The vineyards are cultivated according to controlled, environmentally sound viticultural practices. Organic fertilizer is used as needed; green cover is planted in alternating rows to optimize the humus content of the soil; herbicides are not used; plant protection measures are used sparingly and with respect for the habitat of useful organisms. Ecological vineyard management is also designed with future generations in mind. Stringent pruning to control yields, thinning after blossoming, halving of grapes, careful canopy management and negative selection are all part of the estate’s quality-oriented philosophy.

 

Maintaining low yields and achieving a fully-ripened crop are self-imposed goals. As such, the harvest seldom begins before October and continues for at least eight to ten weeks. During this time, the grapes are harvested by hand, with an extremely critical selection that involves up to seventeen rounds through the vineyards, and gently transported to the estate. The goal is to reap the finest fruit possible to make Riesling wines of every Prädikat level including Trockenbeerenauslese.

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Winemaking

Weingut Robert Weil has the same high standards for operations in the vineyard and in the cellar. The most modern technical know-how is combined with proven methods of traditional winemaking to preserve and fully realize in the cellar the potential of what nature provides. To receive and press the crop as gently as possible, clusters are transported via a so-called vibrating trailer. This method of transfer uses a special vibration technique. The vibrations have a fluidizing effect that enables clusters to be conveyed evenly and avoids subjecting the clusters to external pressure or any mechanical stress that could release tannins and bitter substances from berry skins, pips or stems.

 

Clusters are placed in the press via feeding hoppers. Whole cluster pressing and/or crushing with or without maceration are options at this stage. After gentle pressing at a maximum of two bar, the must is transferred to reception tanks via gravity (vertical concept). Here, natural sedimentation is used to fine the must, after which oenologists decide whether the clear juice is best processed in stainless steel tanks or traditional casks. Depending on the work in the cellar size of an individual lot, more than 300 tanks and casks of varying sizes – with a combined storage capa city of more as a million liters – are available.

 

Fermentation is temperature controlled, strictly monitored, and lasts from six to twelve weeks. Natural yeasts are increasingly prevalent in the cellar. Depending on the health of the crop and as long as high risks during fermentation can be controlled by careful monitoring, spontaneous fermentation with natural yeasts is used to produce wines of greater authenticity and sharper profiles that more clearly reflect their origin. If natural sweetness is to be retained, fermentation is interrupted through temperature reduction. This results in a very fine residual sweetness derived from fructose.

 

Considerable time on the fine-yeast and yeast stirring (bâtonnage) are desirable if vinification takes place in traditional casks (“Stück” cask of 1,200 liters,“Doppelstück” of 2,400 liters, and 4,800-liter casks). The use of stainless steel tanks or traditional casks is not a question of quality, but rather of wine style. The fullbodied dry wines are all fermented and aged in casks because the microoxidation provided wines with greater structural complexity. For the lighter wines with more pronounced fruit and the lusciously sweet wines stainless steel are used, which lends them greater finesse and enables them to develop optimal elegance.

Following sufficient time for slow fermentation and aging, the wines are filtered, then quickly and gently bottled to preserve the primary fruit aromas to the greatest extent possible, after which the wines undergo additional aging in bottle.

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Inside information

Although the Rheingau is one of Germany’s smaller winegrowing regions, its ca. 3,100 ha(7,660 acres) of vineyards are vastly diverse in their geological makeup. They can be divided into three zones: vineyards in proximity to the Rhine, vineyards on the higher reaches of the middle plateau, and vineyards on the heights at the foothills of the Taunus Hills. Among these high-lying sites (up to 240m/ 780 ft in altitude) surrounding Kiedrich lie the three steep hillside sites of Weingut Robert Weil: Kiedricher Klosterberg, Kiedricher Turmberg and Kiedricher Gräfenberg. The microclimate of these three southwestfacing sites is excellent, with perfect exposure to the sun and correspondingly high temperatures as well as good circulation from the Taunus winds drawn into the Rhine Valley.

 

Furthermore, the vines are able to permeate the stony soils and develop deep roots, while the water-retaining soil layers ensure the vines a good water supply. Inclination (up to 60%), exposure (southwest) and the ability of the barren stony soils to absorb heat are the factors that make for three perfect Riesling sites. These conditions, as well as ideal circulation, enable the grapes to remain on the vine for a long time, ripening well into November. Wines made from the loose clusters of small, intensely flavored berries are picture-perfect Riesling wines with a fine acidity; a distinctive mineral tone; and complexity. At the same time, they are marked by elegance and finesse.

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28 different wines with 170 vintages

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