Riesling Marienburg Grosses Gewächs "Fahrlay" 2023

A dry Mosel Riesling that draws its effect not from fullness but from tension: smoky reduction, tart citrus notes and a slate spice that carries the wine through to its salty finish. 12.5% Vol.

The Pünderich vineyard Marienburg Fahrlay is a very rocky, terraced south-facing slope dominated by brilliant blue slate, a high clay content and a small proportion of limestone particles. This rock is what gives the wine its high tension and minerality. Clemens Busch runs the estate in Pünderich in its seventh generation and farms 20 hectares of steep vineyards, eleven of them in the Marienburg. He stopped using herbicides in 1976, and has worked biodynamically since 1986.

Pure Riesling from vines around 75 years old. After harvesting and sorting comes an extended skin contact period; pressing is very slow and at low pressure, and fermentation proceeds spontaneously. Clarification happens solely through sedimentation, and nothing is added beyond small doses of sulphur. Ageing takes place in traditional 1,000-litre Moselle oval casks.

Round and juicy, with rather subtle acidity accompanied by vibrant minerality and slate spice — fresh and powerful, yet elegant and noble. Also extract and firmness, spicy and herbal notes and a mouth-watering salinity. On the nose, light sweetness combines with smoky reductive notes, tart lime and citrus zest, a touch of tonic water, mint, juniper and anise, along with juicy vineyard peach.

Three slate colours define the Marienburg: red, grey, blue. At Clemens Busch, the capsule colour indicates the respective slate type, making the vineyard's terroir legible. The estate's oldest vines root up to eight metres deep into the slate rock, made possible only by farming without herbicides. In the cellar, 80 percent of the wines ferment spontaneously in century-old oval casks, without cultured yeasts, without enzymes, without fining.