Wagner-Stempel – Rheinhessen – Heerkretz Riesling GG – 2018

“Here, you really have to ask yourself how a peach could be more perfect than this? And what makes this dry riesling so amazing is the glacial-water feel to its fresh side. With every swirl of the glass, more spice emerges from the abyss. Somehow, the body of the wine seems to give it almost no weight and it wafts over your palate like a piece of silk blown in the wind. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.” – James Suckling

“Funky, flinty, smoky reduction is full of promise on the nose. The palate holds pepper and grapefruit zestiness. The concentration has a lovely, pithy edge and tingles with vivid citrus brightness. There is a cool, profound core of freshness. Daniel Wagner time and again crafts compelling, salty Rieslings in his remote but geologically fascinating corner of Rheinhessen. The south-facing Heerkretz site is of rhyolite and the wine has all the spice to prove it. Drinking Window 2025 – 2050.” – Decanter

“18.5 points. Still quite reticent on the nose, a little yellow fruit shares the olfactory stage with gentle notes of mint, tea leaves and spirit of melissa. The palate shows plenty of grip and it is difficult to differentiate at this stage whether this comes from wood tannins or a phenolic herbaceousness, probably both. Compact minerality dominates at this early stage, giving the wine some truly sharp contours.” – Jancis Robinson

Fremstilling
Modningen foregår først på ståltanke og herefter på lige dele tyske 1200 og 600 liters egefade (kaldet stückfass og halbstückfass). Jordbunden indeholder grus, ler og de helt særlige vulkanske porpyr-sten, der tilføjer vinen ekstra mineralitet og yderligere forlænger modningsperioden vad at være kølende om dagen og holde godt på varmen om natten.

Daniel Wagner driver i dag den 13 ha. store vingård, som han overtog efter sin far i 1993. I perioden siden han overtog, har han udviklet vingården til i dag at være blandt Tysklands bedste og mest anerkendte, med fremragende produktion af både hvidvin og rødvin. Derfor kan det ikke undre at Daniel Wagner i 2009 er blevet kåret til “Aufsteiger des Jahres” i den tyske udgave af Gault Millau, hvor han samtidig også er blevet tildelt sin fjerde drueklase. Denne gives til producenter, i kategorien “Deutsche Spitze” – lige under “Weltklasse”. Allerede i 2007 var den førende tyske vinguide Eichelmann ude med samme prædikat: “Aufsteiger des Jahres”. Apropos prædikater, så er Wagner-Stempel (naturligvis) medlem af VDP (Verband Deutcher Prädikat und Qualitätsweingüter)