11th July, 2016 by Darren Smith
7. Tobias Rickes – Weingut Tobias Rickes, Nahe
One of the youngest winemakers from the Generation Riesling group, at 22, Tobias Rickes hasn’t even finished his studies at Geisenheim yet, though he has had time to gain experience with winemakers of the calibre of Johannes Leitz in Rheingau.
Tobias took over the winery of his maternal grandparents, while his parents still make wine from their own winery. He made his first vintage at the age of 19. He works alongside his grandfather – the pair actually feature on the label for Tobias’s entry-level wine range.
On around 10ha, Tobias cultivates 50% Riesling, 35% Burgundy varieties and 15% native grapes such as Scheurebe and Kerner.
His formula for precocious success is low yields, grapes in an optimum state of health and ripeness, and a bare minimum of interference in the cellar.
The estate make around 80-100,000 bottles per year, including single vineyard bottlings from Gutental in Kreuznach and Backofchen in Wallhaus.
Stuart Pigott was so impressed with Rickes’s first ever vintage Riesling, the 2012, that he was moved to describe it as the best that he had tasted from Bad Kreuznach “for….