Königsbacher IDIG Riesling Grosses Gewächs 2023 1500ml Magnum

The IDIG Riesling Grosses Gewächs 2023 is a wine of great concentration, carried with an airy lightness. Powerful and elegant at once, with the balance Steffen Christmann describes as his ideal – and, in this vintage, unusually youthful, charming and open.

The IDIG in Königsbach is the heart of the A. Christmann estate in Gimmeldingen. First mentioned in the 14th century, the site remains an undivided four-hectare monopole to this day. The slope drops steeply to the south-southeast; beneath the surface lies a massive limestone bedrock, topped by a layer of calcareous terra fusca with variegated sandstone scree and basalt. The Christmanns acquired the then-neglected parcels in the 1990s and today own 95 percent of the classified area of this VDP.GRAND CRU site.

Riesling. The juice spent a few hours on the skins, fermented spontaneously at a rather warm temperature, and was aged in a large oval cask. The estate has farmed organically since 2002 and biodynamically since 2003, certified to respekt-BIODYN standards.

On the nose, cool and chalky, herbaceous at first and then floral, with fine white-fleshed fruit, bergamot, lime that turns to lemon with air, a touch of quince and apricot, beneath a light reduction. On the palate, plenty of interplay: juicy, bright, stony, slightly zesty, with pleasant firmness and great length. Saline minerality and the gripping acidity of lemon make it increasingly electrifying.

Magnum with 1500 millilitres, 12.0% ABV, dry. Steffen Christmann took over the estate in 1996 as the seventh generation, and since 2018 his daughter Sophie Christmann has been working alongside him; the estate's 17 hectares consist exclusively of classified sites, 70 percent of them planted with Riesling.