Daniel Vollenweider came to the Mosel from his native Switzerland in 1999, with no money but a huge passion for Riesling. He purchased a hectare of a formerly famous, but near-derelict vineyard, the Wolfer Goldgrube, which had very old ungrafted vines, and has never looked back. The estate now comprises 4.5 hectares, and has never produced a sub-standard wine. The Goldgrube is too rocky and steep to be the subject of Flurbereinigung, a process that sees fragmented parcels rationalised, roads built if necessary and vines replanted, all to make mechanisation easier. It runs south to west, and its grey and red slate soils produce deep, spicy wines that need time in bottle to show their glory.
Daniel Vollenweider is a self-critical perfectionist. He always feels he could have done better, and to listen to him talk about the 2019s you would think he has produced a mediocre set of wines whose only redeeming feature is their scarcity. Complete nonsense of course. Challenging it was, but he has pulled off one of the great vintages of his short career so far.
A wet winter was followed by a very dry summer with two heat spikes, one in June, one at the end of July, the latter resulting in a 20% loss of crop through sunburn. Rain in September rescued the parched vines, and Daniel decided to wait for perfect ripeness, beginning picking on 28th September. As for many others, it was a frustrating experience, as rain intermittently stopped play, and pickers had to wait for the vineyards to dry out again. The grapes couldn’t wait though, and ripened rapidly, so speed was essential to avoid over-ripeness as well as the forecasted heavy rain. As a result, there was no time to sort botrytis at the end, and nothing above Goldkapsel was made.
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£29.68 per Bottle
£178.07 per Case
£22.50 per Bottle
£135.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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£144.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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£19.48 per Bottle
£116.87 per Case
£14.00 per Bottle
£84.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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£156.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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