Winemaker Notes
The insanely steep, red-soil Ürziger Würzgarten vineyard produces wines of a completely unique nature in the Mosel valley. The wines show the typically juicy and exotic fruit of the Grosse Lage (grand cru) "spice garden" vineyard, with a rich mouth feel, a spicy acid tingle and lingering finish. Kabinett is the lightest, most delicate style of Riesling in Germany, made from early harvested grapes that are just barely ripe.
Vegan-Friendly
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The wild strawberry flavors have you hooked from the first sip to the end of the very long finish. Fantastic energy and elegance on the light-bodied palate of this delicate beauty. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2024 Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Kabinett is clear and super aromatic on the nose yet elegant and subtle, with fine, flinty minerality and saltiness as well as herbal notes. Round and elegant on the palate, it is almost a little harmless in terms of tension build-up but juicy and balanced, with emphasis, grip and precision. This has good length. It's almost too complex for a Kabinett but doubtlessly an excellent Riesling, regardless of its classification.
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Vinous
The 2024 Riesling Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett throws red apple peel and a touch of clementine in the ring. The palate is light, bouncing with juiciness, stoniness and tangerine pith. The body is lightness itself, with a lip-smacking finish. (Medium)
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.