2015 Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spatlese, Rheingau

Although we tend to focus on their dry wines in Australia, Weil are widely considered true masters of the sweeter Prädikat styles. One of the keys to the Estate's success with the sweeter styles is that the mountainous, rocky setting of the Weil vineyards allows for a perfect balance between natural sweetness, mouth-watering freshness, and pungent, intense minerality. In technical and aesthetical terms, this wine could be an Auslese, but balanced by over 10 grams of acidity, the 91 grams of residual sugar is well and truly restrained and the wine drinks impeccably like a powerful Spätlese. In fact it has a sublime purity and intense, vibrant acidity across the palate that makes it all too easy to polish off a bottle by oneself. The low alcohol (8.5%) helps in this regard!

The 2015 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese is rich and concentrated on the nose and offers clear, lemon-fresh and flinty aromas along with crushed slate and some tropical (passion fruit) flavors. Very deep and complex, indeed. Full-bodied, finessed and elegant, this is a mouthful of fine Gräfenberg Riesling that is impossible to spit. It is a perfectly balanced amalgam of melting minerals, ripe fruits, and a lush and elegant fruit texture. This is simply great Riesling made in Germany and surely from one of the finest grands crus, especially for this style of Riesling, which combines intellect with soul and stomach.

A heady fragrance of tropical fruit overwhelms the senses with its generosity. On the palate grapefruit and lime show just how sweet and luscious they can be in a generous vintage and, although acidity still makes its presence known, its mellow mood serves to give the 2015 Gräfenberg Spätlese quite an opulent character.