Peter-Jakob Kühn started in 1979, the eleventh generation of his family to assume responsibility. This is one of the few estates in Germany to use biodynamic methods, and he and his family do it with awe-inspiring passion and thoroughness. The conversion was gradual and started at home: unhealthy food was banned – no white sugar, white flour or processed foods of any kind. They realised that the chemical industry was encouraging an unhealthy dependence in farmers on its products, side-lining nature in the process. So they abandoned herbicides and insecticides, anti-fungal sprays, and cultured yeasts; in 2001 they took the plunge and became biodynamically certified. They are now one of Germany’s leading growers.
The estate comprises 21 hectares on prime sites in and around Oestrich, with 90% given over to Riesling. The wines are now made by Peter-Bernhard and his wife Viktoria, who have refined the biodynamic methods pioneered by his parents.
The cool conditions of 2021 came as something of a relief from the three preceding hot vintages. That’s not to say it wasn’t very hard work to meet the considerable challenges. This year it was a question of trying to accelerate ripening rather than decelerate it, so all vineyard work was devoted to this goal.
There was extensive debudding in early May to limit the number of shoots and thus ensure an airy canopy; there was also a rigorous green harvest that left only the ripest bunches hanging for the main event. The pressure of disease threatened throughout, and great vigilance was required to combat it, a task all the more difficult when only biodynamic treatments could be used.
By harvest time, the crop had been reduced by a good third, resulting in the estate’s smallest harvest ever. But the wines are delightful – intensely aromatic, transparent and bursting with energy.
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£102.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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£90.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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£132.00 per Case
Bottle - 75cl
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