2021 Robert Weil Monte Vacano Riesling Trocken, Rheingau

“The 2021 Riesling Monte Vacano is named after Wilhem Weil’s great-grandmother. Her dowry bought a vineyard parcel within the steepest part of the Gräfenberg, bordering the Turmberg. It is a slightly later ripening site. The nose has notions of dried fruit, with an orange peel edge against a hazelnut background. The fluid palate is rounded, compact, smooth, concentrated and vivid, like a droplet of gold. Lemon notes give the 2021 its freshness. It's luminous in the most compact fashion possible. The mouthfeel is creamy and rich without an ounce of fat. The 2021 is a profound crater of schist, filled to the brim with fruit. Texturally, it is like the gentle brush of a cat's paw. Limited release. (Bone-dry).” 

97 points, Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous

“The 2021 Monte Vacano, from a particular plot of the Gräfenberg, is an intensely yellow Riesling that opens with a pure, intense, even rich, finely saline and mineral nose with citrus notes. Round and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich, intense, textural, enormously long, complex and saline, stimulatingly precise and tannic Monte Vacano. It is more hedonistic, although from a cooler year, but very, very long, saline and savory. Definitely a wine made for generations.” 

97 points, Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate 

“A huge and compact wine for the challenging 2021 vintage, but with the firm structure and vivid acidity that are typical for the vintage. Complex aromas of red gooseberry, white peach, fresh herbs and just a hint of sealing wax. Then comes the tidal wave of a finish that is stony and herbal in the best sense. Drink from release.” 

97 points, Stuart Pigott, jamessuckling.com

Within Kiedrich’s Gräfenberg Grand Cru lies a small 0.5-hectare parcel once known as the Gräfenberg-Lay. Sitting in one of the steepest portions of the vineyard, the Lay is located at the transition between Gräfenberg and Turmberg and is known for having the highest concentration of phyllite slate on the hill. The vines here are now between 40 and 60 years old.

This site was originally purchased by Dr Robert Weil in the 19th century, using the dowry from his marriage to Emilie von Vacano (a descendant of the Vacano family in Lombardy). The wine from this parcel, called Monte Vacano (the Hill of Vacano), was always produced and bottled alone. It was used only for celebratory occasions and never released for sale. Following Weil's death in 1921, the tradition of Monte Vacano fell dormant, and the fruit was incorporated into a regular Gräfenberg bottling.

Compared to the Gräfenberg GG, Monte Vacano trades power and richness for exceptional purity, elegance and detail. Resurrecting the old custom, 2021 marks the fourth Riesling in a century made solely from this special lieu-dit. It was harvested in October, and the grapes were whole bunch-pressed into two ancient refurbished Stückfässer (1,200-litre casks), where the wine fermented wild and spent almost two years on lees before bottling.