Winemaker Notes
Normally a blend of all four steep slope grand crus from Immich: Batterieberg, Zeppwingert, Ellergrub, and Steffensberg; but this year the Ellergrub fruit from blue slate dominates to scintillating effect. Mostly old and ungrafted vines — at least 60 years old — the vinous heritage of Germany expressed in a generously affordable bottle. Dry every vintage, and especially electric and precise in 2021. One of the star wines of the estate, and dollar-for-quality, the best value
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Wonderful nose of ripe apricot, but with fantastic Amalfi lemon freshness, also smoky and stony notes as this concentrated, medium-bodied dry riesling rolls gracefully over your palate. Long, intensely slatey finish. From organically grown grapes grown in all the top sites of Enkirch harvested at just 30 hectolitres per hectare (2 tons per acre).
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Based on very small, golden-colored berries, the 2022 Escheburg is predominately based on ungrafted vines from the grand cru sites and opens with an intensely aromatic and schistic bouquet of fully ripe, almost pink berries intermingled with saline notes of crushed stones. Sulfured just a few days before the bottling, this is a refined and saline, substantial and persistent Riesling with remarkable vintage and terroir expression. It's low in sulfur but high enough to be singing. 11% stated alcohol.
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.