2020 Weingut Künstler, Riesling Trocken, Hochheim Kirchenstück, VDP Grosses Gewächs, Rheingau, Germany.
Thank you to Lady Somm Carmel for stocking this one and sharing it recently, it is a seriously delicious dry Riesling with incredible depth and evolution on the medium bodied palate showing off apricot, green apple, lemony citrus, quince and mango fruits, along with striking mineral tones, salty wet rock, spicy crystalized ginger, clove, hazelnut and very delicate white blossoms. Very structured, still generous and finely balanced, very much in keeping with Gunter Künstler’s style of wines which offer richness and nobility with loads of verve and tension. The Hochheimer Kirchenstück Grosses Gewächs is sourced from a select parcel on calcareous löss and loam soils from vines planted in 1969, in the famous village of Hochheim am Main, which gained prestige in the 17th century Britain, after a brief visit by English royalty and the term ‘Hock’ was used to describe all Rhinegau wines for the better part of a hundred years. At that time, as I’ve noted before, these Hoccheimer wines were much more famous than Mosel wines and were even, as historic record shows, more expensive than some of the finest Bordeaux. The Kirschenstück GG or Grand Cru vineyard site is, as Künstler notes, set on a heavy lime bedrock, with löss, loam, and sand, making for a complex mix of soils that all play a part in this wine’s greatness and majestic nature. The cellar at Künstler gravitates toward cask fermentation as opposed to steel, though tank is used here as well depending on vintage and style of the wines. Wood gives, what Gunter says is the ideal for giving some low-tech micro-oxygenation. The overriding goal at Künstler, one of Germany’s top producers, is to produce soulful wines with expressive and authentic personalities, especially these GGs, which are incredible in terms of depth and elegance, as seen here.
As mentioned before, Gunter Künstler, who’s family has been involved in winemaking since 1648, is one of Rheingau’s greatest producers based at the confluence of the Main and Rhein rivers in the “Hoch” sub zone, which along with Rüdesheim one of the most historic winemaking villages in Germany. As noted before, Gunter Künstler’s family winery was founded in Hochheim am Main, in 1965 by Gunter’s father Franz, with Gunter taking over In 1992, after which its fortunes began to rise quickly. In 1994 the Künstler estate was admitted to the VDP, and since then it has become maybe the most iconic grower of the “Hoch” zone and one of Germany’s best. The historic sleepy Hochheim am Main, doesn’t always get a lot of attention, but it truly is one of Germany’s most distinctive terroirs, and it was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who famously visited Germany and the region here back in 1788 and wrote about the delicious wines he found. This area takes heroic farming effort to overcome the humid conditions to produce crystalline dry Rieslings without Botrytis and Künstler is working these amazing sites with organic practices and his wines are some of the most elegant and monumental dry wines in Europe. Künstler explains that he ferments with (a) cultured yeast because it’s often still warm when grapes are being picked and to work sponti (native yeast) would mean a greater risk of volatile acidity. Again, as noted in my prior reviews, this is a must have label for serious Riesling fans, white wine lovers and collectors, I have been lucky over the years to have tasted with Gunter and had many older vintages which were and are astonishingly like Burgundies when they have significant age, in particular the offerings from Hoccheim, with the limestone and marl soils adding to that impression. I highly recommend these Künstler GGs, especially the Hölle and this Kirchenstück, with 2020, 2021 and 2022 vintages all being fabulous efforts here at Künstler!
($68 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive