KIRCHIPIEL Riesling Grande Réserve
Around the turn of the 20th century German Riesling wines had achieved international fame and were among the most sought after white wines in the world. No ruling dynasty, luxury hotel or cruise liner would have been seen without these wines on their list. Nobody today would be able to say what these wines tasted like in their youth. What we do know about them today is based exclusively on tastings of one hundred or more year-old bottles of these venerable treasures, as well as a few analytical data. If one takes into account the methods of winemaking and cellar equipment of that time, one soon begins to realise that these highly rated wines, which were invariably served with food, would not have been quite as dry as defined by the term trocken today. This was clearly demonstrated to us by a bottle of 1924 feine (fine) Spätlese, which we discovered in the treasure chamber of our cellar in 2004. When we tasted the wine, we found it to be unbelievably fresh and animating despite its age and that even though the bottle showed low ullage and was still sealed with the original cork. This experience and further study of the history of German Riesling led to the idea of reviving this style of wine, slightly adapted to a more modern expression, but with similar caracteristics as the historic role models. The result is our WESTHOFENER Riesling Alte Reben, which we have been producing since 2008. The term “Alte Reben” describes its provenance from truly old vines, but also stands for the particular style of this wine. After four vintages of the WESTHOFENER Alte Reben we had gathered enough experience to be certain about its aging potential. This is why in 2012 we decided to produce a Riesling feinherb from the KIRCHSPIEL site with the deliberate intention of holding the wine at our estate until it would be ready for drinking. It has been made in the image of the classic, highquality Riesling, as we imagine it would have been when German wine achieved world fame over hundred years ago. Since 2012 we have produced this wine in every vintage. We think that the 2012 Kirchspiel Riesling Grande Réserve has now reached the point where it starts drinking well, and have decided to release the wine for sale from September 2018.