2018 Kiedricher Grafenberg Riesling GG

Sea breeze wafts from the glass, accompanied by ripe peach and passion fruit. The palate impression is firm and full (at around 13% alcohol) and the finish pithy, piquant and stone-lined, albeit juicy enough to refresh and delivering sufficient salinity to stimulate the salivary glands. But no one will accuse this wine of being a flatterer. Still, it’s impressive in its rather stiff and austere way. Will it with time reveal its ostensible superiority to the Klosterberg and Turmberg? I need to ask Weil to let me put that question – which has occurred to me in past vintages as well – to the test.

TA 7.5 g/l, RS 4.6 g/l. Steely on the nose – there is definitely an extra degree of complexity here. Very intense and youthful, with compact fruit that has a strong sense of compression. There’s a sourness to this in its youth, which gives a certain severity, but it will surely mellow with age. (RH)

I have not been able to detect a chink in the armour of this magnificent estate for a long time, and the 2018 Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs, although different, is as good as any of its predecessors. In the hot season of 2018 the right approach has been found to keep the wine still cool and fresh, avoiding exotic excesses as well as surplus muscle. Although peach and apricot show a generous fleshy character, the body remains taut and the acidity animating. Spice and minerality have as much input as fruit, a tasteful phenolic touch adds backbone. (MS)