Gunderloch Rothenberg Riesling Spätlese 2021
£39.45
The wine
Light gold, rich and complex, with quince, marmalade and elderflower honey, and a juicy palate.
Spätlese means late harvest, one rung above Kabinett, picked riper and carrying more sweetness balanced by acidity. From a small parcel in the Rothenberg Grosse Lage. The Roter Hang takes its name from its red slate, a rare iron-rich soil that stores the day heat and reflects light back onto the vines, and it gives Riesling a distinctive smoky, spicy character found almost nowhere else.
The producer
Gunderloch
View all Gunderloch winesGunderloch is one of Germany's most celebrated estates, based in Nierstein on the famous Roter Hang, or red slope, above the Rhine in Rheinhessen. Family-run for generations, it is renowned above all for Riesling of great purity and power. Its wines rank among the country's finest.
The steep vineyards are set on distinctive red slate and sandstone soils that give the wines their smoky, mineral character. Farming is organic, and the great sites of Rothenberg and Pettenthal are among the region's most prized. Cool conditions preserve the wines' racy acidity.
The range spans everything from the fruity, off-dry Jean Baptiste Kabinett and Redstone to the powerful dry Grosses Gewächs and lusciously sweet Spätlese. Each is pure, mineral and expressive of its slope. Together they show Riesling in all its guises.
Gunderloch's wines combine intensity with elegance and a striking sense of place. They are age-worthy, food-friendly and consistently outstanding. A benchmark of German Riesling.
