Weiser-Kunstler Riesling 2021
About the wine:
The Riesling Weiser-Künstler, as it is referred to on the main label (the reference to the vintage is left for the back label), is a barely off-dry wine (with 15 g/l of residual sugar) made from Estate’s holdings and from grapes sourced at a befriended organic grower in the Enkircher Steffensberg. It offers a stunning and pure nose which screams Mosel as beautifully scents of freshly cut flowers, white peach, a dash of whipped cream, a hint of blood orange, and slate emerge from the glass. The wine proves delicately off dry on the delicious and well-balanced palate and leaves a subtly ample feel of ripe fruits, zest of citrusy fruits, slate, and smoke. This is a truly remarkable Estate wine!
About the producer:
Country: Germany
Appellation: Mosel
Village: Traben-Trarbach
Main vineyards: Enkircher Ellergrub
Summary: Konstantin Weiser and Alexandra Künstler run a tiny, 4-hectare estate. Just downstream from the famous “Hollywood” section of the Middle Mosel, they quietly go about their business of crafting some of the world’s most pristine, detailed, pure Rieslings. The dry Rieslings are razor sharp, more about mineral, salt and flower than about fruit. The Prädikat wines are “old school,” with lower amounts of residual sugar and higher amounts of acidity than most. They shiver with tension and acidity and remain fresh, agile and versatile. In other words, Weiser-Künstler does it all, and does it all beautifully.
Size: Around 4 hectares with a small amount of purchased fruit. All fruit, both estate and purchased, is farmed organically.
Key grape varieties: Riesling
Soil: slate
Vine age: up to and above 100+ years old and largely ungraIed
Vineyard work: Absolutely no use of insecticides/pesticides; demeter-approved spraying for fungus with minimal copper use (1/3 amount as allowed by organic certifications), minimal plowing, excess vegetation is trimmed, otherwise the soil is left alone. All vineyard work and harvesting is done by hand.
Vinification: Depending on the vintage there will be a light crushing and gentle pressing or direct whole bunch pressing in a pneumatic press. Wines are fermented with native yeasts and raised in a combination of stainless steel, old oak Fuders and some used barriques, different wines will see various vessels based on yield and vintage character. Auslese wines are made from only from botrytised, never dried berries.