Kieselberg -N- 2022

This Riesling places spice ahead of fruit. Michael Andres offers a purist, deep reading of the Kieselberg, a site often known for very fruity wines: warm at its core, carried by extract and phenolics rather than sweet fruit.

The parcel in the Deidesheimer Kieselberg covers 0.12 hectares. Its soils consist of variegated sandstone, loam and loamy sand with pebbles, along with sandy clays and weathered sandstone. Andres founded his winery in Ruppertsberg in 1993 and has kept it deliberately small: seven hectares across five single vineyards, including the Kieselberg. He works alone, harvests by hand and has farmed biodynamically since 2006, using horsetail tea, horn manure and the lunar calendar to guide harvest timing.

Pure varietal Riesling from the N line, which stands for Natural, No Filtration, No Limits and Next Level. Small batches, spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts and no additives, no filtration, only minimal sulphur dosing. Bottled dry at 12.5% ABV with approx. 6.1 g/l total acidity.

The nose moves between ripe yellow fruit and spice: apple, pear and quince alongside light tobacco, mace, a touch of linseed oil and white pepper, topped by borage and chervil. On the palate, the spicy side takes over, the fruit shows the aromatics of its skin and sits within the extract. Dark notes follow: black cardamom, cedar and citrus. The acidity is ripe and stretches broadly across the palate, the phenolics work fine-grained along the edge of the tongue.

A wine from a micro-parcel of just 0.12 hectares, unfined and bottled unfiltered. Haze and sediment are part of its character.