Description
Fifteen of the forty acres and the biggest of the parcels that make up the Sybille Kuntz Estate are situated in the Niederberg-Helden Einzellage – a site that was already highly rated in the 1804 official classification made upon the initiative of Napoleon, the Mosel then being under French rule. The oldest vines here were planted in the 1920’s on the best and steepest slopes; many of them are pre-phylloxera vines that play a formative role in creating the compact, mineral spine of Sybille Kuntz’s Riesling wines. In addition, Sybille Kuntz’s Riesling today is also grown in the adjacent single vineyard sites of Bernkastel-Kues Kardinalsberg, Bernkastel-Kues Weisenstein, Lieser Rosenlay and Lieser Schlossberg.
On a seventy-degree slope the midday sun hits the vines vertically and, additionally, the Mosel River reflects the sun with mirror-like intensity. With a minimal diet provided on the surface soil, the vines are forced to send their root systems as deep as forty-five feet into the grey Devonian slate to get their nutrients.
“My wine is a special, a different kind of Mosel Riesling.” — Sybille Kuntz
Sybille Kuntz has been practicing organic viticulture as early as 1990, however, starting with the 2011 vintage it was decided to go through the official certification process to become a classified organic »Bio-Weingut« which we achieved in 2013.
Tasting Notes
A miracle of concentration and extract. Perhaps not the delicate flower of a typical Kabinett but gosh it’s chock-full of flavour! Almost more tropical flowers than wildflowers. Really sets the cat among the pigeons of ‘classical’ Mosel. But that’s presumably climate change for you. A fabulous wine that qualifies as off-dry and is hugely emphatic. [17/20 Points, Jancis Robinson – August 2021 – jancisrobinson.com]
