2022 Graacher Himmelreich Spatlese

AP number 08 23. Big and fruity and so clean and pure! So much more so than the old sulphured sweet Rieslings that were so common in the 1970s and 1980s. Delicate spider’s-web stuff. But not that long. (JR)

Sourced in the same parcel as the legendary 1976 Auslese and picked rather early, the 2022 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese opens with a clear, precise and elegant nose of white fruits and flinty notes of coolish crushed slate. Intense and lush on the palate, this is mouth-filling and charming, very long and mineral/saline Spätlese that doesn't show exceptionally high acidity but a ripe one that is completely interwoven with the mineral/phenolic structure. This is a hedonistically juicy but weightless and finessed, stimulating and saline Spätlese from the Himmelreich, which didn't produce an Auslese in 2022. All the fully ripe and golden berries went into the Spätlese. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in May 2023.