Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad Riesling VDP Erste Lage 2022

Medium golden yellow with green reflections. A dry Riesling with drive and coolness that reveals little in its youth. It needs oxygen: decant it, use a sufficiently large glass, don't serve it too cold. Concentration and lightness then stand side by side, at 12.0% vol.

The Reiterpfad lies on the slope above Deidesheim: 60 hectares, a terrace sloping only gently towards the east-southeast, made up of variegated sandstone scree washed down from the Haardt mountains over millennia. The name goes back to the Prince-Bishop of Speyer, lord of Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg. Since 2014, only the Hofstück west of the wine road has been classified as VDP.Grosse Lage, with the remainder of the Reiterpfad classified as VDP.Erste Lage.

Pure Riesling, harvested in several passes with strict selection of fully ripe, healthy berries. The grapes are brought whole to the press house, crushed, left on the skins for three to six hours and then pressed slowly. The must is only lightly settled overnight before fermenting spontaneously with the vineyard's own yeasts. Unfined and untreated, the wine matures for a long time on the lees and fine lees in stainless steel and in the large, classic wooden cask.

After contact with air, citrus, green apple and elderflower come to the fore, with hints of young pineapple, ginger and coriander behind them. On the palate, a fine bitterness of grapefruit, carried by refreshing acidity; the wine feels crystal clear and invigorating.

Kohlrabi carpaccio with mint, lime oil and baked rice cracker, prawns with shellfish sauce and coriander dumplings, or oven-roasted poularde with orange marinade, rosemary and pumpkin purée.

Steffen Christmann, president of the VDP since 2007, runs the estate together with his daughter Sophie. The estate has worked biodynamically since 2003, certified to respekt-BIODYN and EU organic standards. Across 17 hectares, only single-vineyard wines are grown, 70 percent of them Riesling.