Riesling "vom roten Schiefer" 2024 1500ml Magnum

A dry-styled Riesling from Pünderich on the Mosel, moderate in alcohol at 11.0% vol. The first impression is both youthful and complex. This wine calls for time to mature and will reveal its full layering over the next year or two.

The grapes come predominantly from the Rothenpfad parcel above the railway viaduct opposite Pünderich. The soil there is very light and consists mainly of very soft, weathered red clay slate. Part of the fruit comes from the Nonnengarten vineyard west below the Marienburg, where one parcel carries the traditional name Rote Ader. Here, too, the soil is red, but more intermixed and considerably heavier, giving wines that are earthier and more taut. Since the 2003 vintage, these two types together form the basis of this wine.

Riesling. Clemens Busch stopped using herbicides in 1976 at the age of 19 and has been working biodynamically since 1986. The oldest vines root as deep as eight metres into the slate rock. In the cellar, 80 percent of the wines ferment spontaneously in centuries-old 1000-litre casks, without cultured yeasts, without enzymes, without fining. Extended ageing on the fine lees adds further complexity.

On the nose, vineyard peach, orange, red apples and dried apricots, along with hints of honey, ginger and cardamom. On the palate, juicy, carried by vibrant acidity, peppery spice and grip. Grapefruit and green apple linger long in the finish.

At Clemens Busch, the colour of the capsule reveals the soil — here red for the red slate. The estate farms 20 hectares of steep vineyards in its seventh generation, eleven of them in the Pündericher Marienburg. Bottled in magnum with 1500 ml.