We've made it to Friday, and with it, one very star-studded Riesling lineup is on the horizon, set to shine come tomorrow (Saturday 17th)
From 12 to 2pm, three classically-styled icons of this ancient varietal come together for a tasting that encompasses crispy poise and dry minerality, as well as sweetened structure and forward concentration. Domaine Weinbach is the most historic name of the trio - established by monks within Alsace in 1612, they are the largest landholders on the legendary Schlossberg Hill (the first vineyard in Alsace to receive Grand Cru status back in 1975). Following a strict minimal intervention philosophy, the Théo Riesling here reflects its special origin with such elegance, singing with a taut blend of citrus, stony minerality and honeycomb. We also couldn't help but include their Gewürztraminer here; a delightful drier style of the grape that feels very fitting and appropriately fine-boned wedged between these other beauties.
Germany's Rheingau and Mosel areas are then explored with two of the most prestigious estates from both - from the former comes Robert Weil, seen often by critics and collectors as a shining jewel of the region. Dedicating 100% of their 90-hectare estate exclusively to Riesling, this intense focus allows them to imbue distinct flavour profiles across their three famous vineyards: Turmberg, Klosterberg and Gräfenberg, the first two we'll be exploring with their new 2024 releases! These are bracing, fresh wines with just the right amount of rich character and lingering grip, granted by their slate soils from which the fruit maintains its acidity and tension.
Moving then to the Mosel, how could we in good conscience not include Joh Jos Prüm? Having recently taken stock of their 2024's in two GraacherHimmelreich (Kabinett and Spätlese), what is perhaps the country's most revered wine name have made magic once more from their dizzingly steep slopes and Devonian slate soils. The Kabinett holds some lovely flint, crushed rock and struck match, backed up by more tender notes of apple, white peach and garden herbs. The Spätlese, ever a decadent treat, is pronounced and addictive, abound with tropical fruit and a poised finish lengthy and lucid. As a refreshing kick-start to the whole lineup, we'll also be showing the surging Trocken from von Buhl (ticking off another region with Pfalz!)
We hope you can join us on this one! It'll make for one fantastic journey of Riesling royalty.
Reichsrat von Buhl Pfalz Riesling Trocken 2024
$30 on special this week ($35 RRP)
"Von Buhl’s entry-level wine is drawn from the Estate’s great sandstone-rich vineyards around the villages of Deidesheim, Forst and Ruppertsberg. All the vineyards are certified organic. In the cellars, most of the juice naturally ferments in tank, with some parcels fermented in Von Buhl's oval dopplestück oak casks. Even at this level, the wine’s upbringing includes extended lees aging (six months on gross lees). There is no pumping and very little added sulphur. This is a terrific-value dry Riesling, with the juicy palate weight of the vintage proving a perfect foil for the rocky texture, mouthwatering, citrus-edged acidity and near-absolute-dry finish." - Importer Notes
Robert Weil 'Kiedricher' Riesling Trocken 2024
$72 on special this week ($82 RRP)
"Weil’s village Riesling is a blend of first-picked parcels from the classified hillside estate sites of Klosterberg, Turmberg and Gräfenberg, as well as a measure of Wasseros fruit. As you would expect from such terroir, it is a step up from the entry wine, with more texture and power and considerably rockier mineral intensity. Accordingly, one-third of the wine is raised in large Stockinger Doppelstückfass (wooden cask) for six months." - Importer Notes
"Vinified in stainless steel (two-thirds) and large oak casks (one-third) the 2024 Kiedricher Riesling Trocken is from later-harvested grapes in higher altitudes and rockier soils, even Erste and Grosse Lage sites. The wine is still a little bit reductive on the nose and opens deep, intense and flinty, with notes of crushed stones. On the palate, this is a round, refined and elegant, really pristine and mouth-filling yet light and finessed Riesling with a long, saline and finely grippy finish. This is an excellent, energetic and playful entry into the crus from Robert Weil." - 92 Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Robert Weil 'Kiedrich Klosterberg' Riesling Trocken 2024
$92 on special this week ($105 RRP)
"The vines on this steep, four-hectare vineyard are between 40 and 60 years old. At up to 300 metres, this is the highest of Weil’s three hillside sites, yet thanks to its southern aspect and deeper, iron-rich, weathered slate soils, it also produces the most opulent and seductive of these wines (when young). The Weil team often use the term ‘baroque’ when describing wines from Klosterberg in reference to the lift and generosity. While the Klosterberg shares some similarities in character with the Kiedricher wine, you always get a kick up in intensity, complexity and drive at the finish." - Importer Notes
"The 2024 Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Trocken is based on grapes that were macerated for four and 12 hours. Vinified in large oak casks (mainly doppelstücks), kept on the full lees until June and bottled in July, the 2024 opens with a still discreet but characterful nose with coolish notes of lemon fruits, lime rind and stone dust. Dense, rich and round but still light and playful, with a fine tannin grip and lingering salinity, this is a zesty, savory and very elegant Klosterberg with a dense, tasty, saline finish. Still with baby fat, I recommend aging this Riesling for at least four years." - 93 Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Robert Weil 'Kiedrich Turmberg' Riesling Trocken 2024
$92 on special this week ($105 RRP)
"From a cooler side valley and pure gray slate soils, the 2024 Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken opens with a deep, intense and coolish, very clear and stony bouquet of crushed stones, herbs and lemon zests. Full-bodied, finely creamy, vital and very saline on the palate, with fine tannin grip and a certain kind of sweetness or texture, this is a tight, savory, saline and persistent Turmberg with excellent aging capacity." - 96 Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
"The 2024 Riesling Kiedricher Turmberg Erste Lage fermented spontaneously in Doppelstück after a short period of skin contact. The nose is still shy and shimmering with lime and greengage skins. The palate brings a gorgeous lime pith note to the fore, adding riper notions of Reine Claude plum. This is beautifully tart, bracing and fresh, with that wonderful plummy core. The 2024 is juicy, slender and so very animating with exquisite clarity and such purity." - 93 Points, Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous
Domaine Weinbach Alsace Théo Riesling 2023
$99 on special this week ($115 RRP)
"Biodynamic. The Théo Riesling comes exclusively from the monopole Le Clos des Capucins—a vineyard that takes its name from the Capuchin friars who arrived in the area in 1619—at the base of the celebrated Schlossberg hill. The Clos is well protected from winds by the surrounding hills and walls. The soils are sand, alluvial pebbles and granitic gravel. The low-cropping vines typically offer up a supple and pithy Riesling that is wonderfully accessible when young—a reflection of these sandy soils. As with all Weinbach dry Rieslings, this was pressed as whole bunches, fermented without any yeast additions, and matured in very old oak casks for, in this case, 10 months. It’s a thoroughbred Cuvée Theo: long, taut and intense." - Importer Notes
"Aromas of honeycomb, generous stones and citrus. Then comes the extremely elegant, precise, medium-bodied palate, where the fruit, stony minerality and touch of creaminess are exactly balanced. Long, very pure finish. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drink or hold." -
94 Points, Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com
Domaine Weinbach 'Les Treilles du Loup' Gewürztraminer 2023
$99 on special this week ($115 RRP)
"Biodynamic. This stunning, off-dry Gewürztraminer comes from a parcel of 40- to 50-year-old vines located in the Wolfreben lieu-dit in the Kaysersberg valley between Clos des Capucins and the village of Kaysersberg. The soils are sandy silt over granite pebbles. Gewürztraminer in this terroir ripens early, producing wines with complex aromatics and powerful concentration." - Importer Notes
"Here’s that rare creature, a dry gewurztraminer with excellent balance and a certain delicacy. Yellow roses and restrained yellow grapefruit character. Very pure and delicate in the long, super-clean finish." - 94 Points, Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com
"On a sandy lieu-dit between the winery and village. RS 12 g/l. ‘Less overripe than in the past’, according to Eddy Leiber-Faller who suggests drinking it with cheese and lightly spiced dishes, maybe shellfish broth and/or something with cilantro. Very perfumed and fumy. Creamy and lots of energy." - 17/20 Points, Jancis Robinson MW
Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett 2024
$110 on special this week ($125 RRP)
(Limited availability)
"Katharina Prüm describes her 2024 Kabinett wines as “textbook”, and it is truly a great vintage for this level, as the notes below make clear. Only Graacher and Wehlener were produced. Both show the quality of this vintage in their own way and are deeply expressive of the site. In a nutshell, the wines are wonderfully intense, fresh and balanced. Although they will mostly be drunk young, they will also improve for at least 10 to 15 years, and 20 years will not weary them. They effortlessly stand up to a broad range of flavours: sashimi, lighter Asian dishes and tuna tartare, for example. But any seafood or white meat, really, and of course, they make beautiful aperitifs. All these wines sing loudest when matched with savoury dishes, but that’s especially true of the Kabinett wines." - Importer Notes
"The 2024 Riesling Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett is still a little flinty but tender green apple shows through. The palate stays on this beautifully bright side where fruitiness is juicy and tart, but its freshness is absolutely subsumed and intertwined with ripeness. Its beautiful lightness is grounded in slaty stone like a scented breeze. The 2024 is gorgeous." - 93 Points, Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous
Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese 2024
$115 on special this week ($130 RRP)
(Limited availability)
"At this level, the Prüm wines are still light in body, but the flavour intensity and depth of character increase markedly. The Prüms describe the 2024s as both charming and classic, in a union that feels just right. There is brightness and balance here, but considerably more depth of fruit than in the Kabinett-level wines, although not overt sweetness. Instead, it is a question of more flesh, more power and, therefore, wines that can stand up to richer food. Katharina Prüm rightly sees Spätlese as one of the estate’s great food-wine categories, and in 2024 that feels especially true; although the 2024 Auslese-level wines are also remarkable food wines!" - Importer Notes
"The 2024 Riesling Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese offers a salty wet slate aroma with a savor reminiscent of lichen and citrus peel. All about it is precise, stony, linear, crystalline and bright. You almost forget that this is a Spätlese, as its sweetness and acidity seem to be bound absolutely to the sunken salty slate that makes the mouth water endlessly. The 2024 has brilliance, poise, absolute structure and very fine bones. The finish is full of lemon zest." - 95 Points, Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous
"The 2024 Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese offers an intense, refined and elegant bouquet of tropical fruits, weathered wet slate and greenish herbs and grass. Very elegant and refined but also lush and savory on the palate, this is another sophisticated Spätlese that combines the juiciness and fruit intensity of the Badstube with the saline and crystalline finesse of the Graacher Himmelreich." - 94 Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
If you wish to purchase any of these wines, please use the links above
Otherwise, if you have any questions, please contact us on (07)32521117 or email sales@thewineemporium.com.au
// Special prices valid until Friday the 23rd of October