Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Spätlese Green Seal 2022
£39.95
The wine
A rich and fragrant Spu00e4tlese, with an exotic bouquet of orange peel, pineapple and lime complemented by ripe red apple and delicious mineral undertones. Initial sweetness is perfectly balanced by a juicy freshness on the palate and a delicately creamy finish.
Spu00e4tlese was discovered on this hillside. In 1775 the courier carrying permission to begin picking arrived late, the grapes had been left until noble rot set in, and the resulting wine was extraordinary. The word means late harvest, and the entire German quality system followed from that accident. Green is the estate's seal for it.
The producer
Schloss Johannisberg
View all Schloss Johannisberg winesSchloss Johannisberg stands above the Rhine in the Rheingau and has a claim no other estate can match: in 1720 it was planted entirely to Riesling, making it the first Riesling estate in the world. Vines have grown on the hill since the ninth century, reputedly on the orders of Charlemagne.
It is also where late harvesting was discovered. In 1775 the courier carrying permission to begin picking arrived late, and the grapes had been left until they were affected by noble rot. The wine was extraordinary, and Spätlese entered the language. Within twelve years the estate had added Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese, and the entire German quality system followed from what happened on this hillside.
The wines are identified by the colour of the seal on the capsule rather than by words, a system in use since 1820: Yellow for feinherb, Green for Spätlese, Pink for Auslese, Silver for Großes Gewächs. Rheingau Riesling is fuller and more powerful than the Mosel's, grown on the one stretch where the Rhine flows east to west and every vineyard faces south.
