Königsbacher Ölberg-Hart Riesling Grosses Gewächs 2021

The Grosses Gewächs from the Hart parcel is a dry Riesling grown on the limestone marl of Königsbach's Ölberg site: austere, pronouncedly stony, with a dark, smoky edge and 12.5% ABV. Powerful yet elegant, with balance: the ideal that Steffen Christmann calls the "prima ballerina among Rieslings".

Hart is the core of the Ölberg site, around the Ölberg wayside chapel, classified as a VDP.Grosse Lage in 2013. The soil is defined by Tertiary limestone marl, so-called terra fusca, mixed in the topsoil with variegated sandstone scree. The A. Christmann winery in Gimmeldingen has been family-owned since 1798; Steffen Christmann, president of the VDP since 2007, runs it together with his daughter Sophie, who joined in 2018. Across 17 hectares, only single-vineyard wines from Riesling and Pinot are grown.

Pure Riesling. The juice spent a few hours on the skins, fermented spontaneously at fairly warm temperatures, and matured in a large 1200-litre oval cask.

On the nose, verbena, mint and sedge grass, plus lime, lemon and mirabelle, rounded out by graphite and limestone. The opening is iodine-tinged and austere, with plenty of lemon and citrus zest, crushed stone and herbs. The wine's charm currently shows in a slight creaminess and a fine extract sweetness; the rest is pressure, tension and minerality of high intensity.

Mirin-cured salmon with citrus and coriander, glazed Ibérico presa with sugar snap peas and Padrón peppers, or spinach and chanterelles with egg yolk and elderflower.

Up to this vintage, the auction wine came solely from the oldest part of the parcel. Since then, the younger vines have also reached a good age, so the Grosses Gewächs now comes from the entire Hart. Biodynamic since 2003, certified to respekt-BIODYN and EU organic standards.