Riesling Karthäuserhof Grosses Gewächs 2023

Cool, taut and truly dry: 0.5 g/l residual sugar meets 8.5 g/l acidity, all at a lean 12.0% ABV. The acidity carries the wine with elasticity without ever turning sharp, while the aromatic profile stays bright and clearly defined.

The grapes grow in the Kronenberg, a historic site within the Karthäuserhofberg. This nearly 20-hectare monopole lies in a side valley of the Ruwer, facing south-southwest, with parcels reaching slopes of up to 55 percent and iron-rich Devonian slate in the subsoil. As early as 1868, the Royal Prussian government classified this site in its highest category, and the VDP today lists it as a Grosse Lage. It is farmed biodynamically and entirely by hand.

Riesling from vines around 100 years old, classically pressed as whole clusters. Fermentation proceeds slowly in wood, after which the wine ages for 16 months on full lees over two winters.

Fruit, herbs and minerality converge into a direct, forceful flow: grapefruit, bergamot, a touch of bitter orange, tart pear and white peach, joined by lemon balm, chervil, lemon thyme and a whisper of mint. The stony-saline element feels austere and sinewy, the astringency remains fine. On the finish, the wine brightens further, with positive bitter notes and an ethereal breeze enlivening the long finish.

With pan-fried pike-perch on lentils, seafood with lemon herbs, and delicate dishes of veal and poultry.

Karthäuserhof traces its origins to a donation to Carthusian monks in 1335, and Albert Behler now runs it in the seventh generation. Since 2020, Mathieu Kauffmann has been working alongside him, previously cellar master at Bollinger and technical director at Reichsrat von Buhl.