Riesling Grand Cru Brand Vieilles Vignes 2009

Description of the wine Riesling Grand Cru Brand Vieilles Vignes 2009

The ‘Old Vines’ selection comes from the eastern part of the Brand, where the granite is in fact lying above a very interesting marl/limestone mother rock. This rare combination is highly interesting as it produces wines with great structure and minerality but also very aromatic Rieslings. The granite allows for better drainage/heat and produces the minerals; the underlying clay/limestone brings water stability and structure. It is also a combination that helps the development of noble rot, and on old vines, the result can be a wine with incredible concentration. This wine was harvested under the limit of late harvest, but unfortunately too early for the local authorities (perhaps we work to hard in our vineyards trying to get good ripeness!), so, not wanted to harvest this vineyard any later, we lost the VT approval. Of course, allowing for more concentration and produce an SGN was tempting, but we thought that this wasn’t a better option in a vintage like 2009 in this vineyard. Expectedly, the fermentation stopped early keeping a large amount of sweetness in the wine.