Tasting note

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary at Das Goldstein by Gollner’s near Wiesbaden. They happen to have a stellar wine cellar with a correspondingly good wine menu from which we picked this sweet Riesling Auslese to go along with our dinner.

Weingut Künstler is a long-standing winery from Hochheim in the Rheingau. Today, the estate is run by Gunter Künstler. Künstler cultivates a total of over 50 hectares, of which around 40 hectares are planted with Riesling. Hochheimer Hölle is a VDP-classified Große Lage (“grand cru”) and is certainly one of the estate’s best Riesling sites. The soil is characterised by heavy clay and produces correspondingly powerful wines.

Rich, yellow colour. Slightly ethereal on the nose with smoky minerality. Above this lies an animating, ripe yellow fruit. On the palate, the 2015 Hochheimer Hölle Auslese is powerful and juicy with ripe fruit: Apricot, orange and pineapple. The sweetness is flanked by a well-integrated acidity. Candied lemons. This tastes very fine and lasts long on the palate. A great Auslese that can age for many more years.

Drink through 2040.

Tasted by Dominik Müller on Sunday, 20 August 2023.