Bordeaux’s ‘Oktoberfest’ – La Place’s ‘Riesling week
October is the month that alcohol-fuelled attention typically turns to Germany – in Bordeaux just as much as elsewhere. For the week of 20 October sees the second edition of what it now becoming an annual tradition – the autumn release of the German Rieslings offered by La Place.
Many of these wines were new to La Place last year and the inaugural ‘Riesling Week’ was one of the very few great successes of a campaign that took place in the most difficult of market conditions. Essentially all of the wines released this time last year sold out almost immediately.
This year’s releases are no less promising, coming once again from a range of superstar producers in the Mosel and the Rheingau, bringing to La Place a range of exceptional wines from highly prestigious vineyards typically at very reasonable prices.
To help you make your selection from these exceptional wines, here are my tasting notes.
| German releases (white) | Vintage | Region | 1st release? | Rating |
| Domäne Serrig Vogelsang Kabinett* | 2022 | Mosel | No | 95 |
| Domäne Serrig Vogelsang Grosse Lage* | 2022 | Mosel | No | 97 |
| Schloss Johannisberg Kabinett Orangelack | 2024 | Rheingau | No | 97 |
| Schloss Johannisberg Trocken Goldlak | 2022 | Rheingau | No | 98 |
| Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling GG Dry Vieilles Vignes | 2019 | Mosel | No | 95 |
| Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett Vieilles Vignes | 2019 | Mosel | No | 95 |
| Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Vieiles Vignes | 2019 | Mosel | No | 98 |
| Gunther Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Kabinett | 2024 | Mosel | No | 96 |
| Gunther Steinmetz Neumagner Rosengärtchen GG Riesling | 2024 | Mosel | No | 96 |
| Gunther Steinmetz Piesporter Treppschen GG Riesling | 2024 | Mosel | No | 97 |
| Battenfeld Spanier Mölsheim Auf Dem Kalkofen Riesling* | 2023 | Rheinhessen | No | 94+ |
| Weingut Robert Weil Monte Nostrum Riesling Trocken* | 2023 | Rheingau | No | 97 |
* – already released
Domäne Serrig Vogelsang Kabinett (Markus Molitor) 2022 (Serriger Vogelsang, Mosel; 100% Riesling; from a legendary estate established by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1904 on the incredibly steep slate slopes of the Saar river valley; 9.5% alcohol; tasted twice; basket pressed and vinified in a combination of oak and stainless steel). Flint. Nuts and petrol. Macademia nuts in fact. Mango. A little peach. When I first tasted this the sample was almost a little petillant (after recent bottling); not so the second time, though this is a wine that dances and tingles as it does so. It’s almost mischievous in personality. So fantastically vibrant and bright. Radiant in its acidity, with just a touch of residual sugar. Fresh ginger; ginger ale; orange zest. So mineral you could almost cut yourself on it. Special. 95.
Domäne Serrig Vogelsang Grosse Lage (Markus Molitor) 2022 (100% Riesling; from a grand cru vineyard in the Saar; from a legendary estate built by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1904 on the incredibly steep slate slopes of the Saar river valley; 10 g/l of residual sugar, acidity of 8 g/l; 12% alcohol). That flinty, stony minerality again – here the impression of pebbles in a babbling mountain stream. Lifted but less so than the Kabinett – with less of the ‘vertiginous acidity’ I found in the 2021. But the same exciting, vivid, energising, almost playful acidity. More ample and more layered too. A wine of massive intensity and complexity. Hyper-saline in its minerality. Exquisite. Utterly unique and highly distinctive. 97.
Schloss Johannisberg Kabinett Orangelack 2024 (Rheingau; 100% Riesing; 1200 bottles; barrel-pressed with vinification in steel and just 6 months of oak aging). The top Kabinett cuvée of this increasingly iconic estate. A wine of utter brilliance and another ‘Riesling week’ star that is so complex as to be very difficult to describe. Closed aromatically but enticing. On the palate, it’s the residual sucrosity that one notices first, but only for an instant. For then we sense the sheer juiciness and sapidity of the wine and, with that, is delivered the wall of intensely grapefruit-scented and grapefruit-charged acidity and freshness. The opposite of a sugar-rush – a citrus-rush perhaps? This is wondrously flinty too. Brilliant and with very considerable aging potential. 97.
Schloss Johannisberg Trocken Goldlak 2022 (Rheingau; 100% Riesling; 1200 bottles; 33 months of aging in oak; 12.5% alcohol). There’s an enticing touch of Tutankhamun gold to this and there’s a step up in the intensity of the citrus and flint notes in comparison with the Orangelack in this exquisite and exciting wine from Schloss Johannisberg. It’s perhaps a little more essentially Riesling with fewer of the more tropical notes of the Orangelack cuvee and the slightly hint of the service station forecourt alongside the polished pebbles in a babbling brook. Almost a touch of damson skin and just a hint of its tannins. Incredibly vibrant, bright, fresh and crisp – rapier-like in its precision to the point where you feel you might cut your tongue on its vivid mineral-encrusted steely central spine. Lime and pink grapefruit and an almost electrical freshness. 98.
Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling GG Dry Vieilles Vignes Riesling 2019 (12.5% alcohol; 1344 bottles produced). White grapefruit. Citron pressé. Fresh lemon. A little residual sugar. Melon flesh. This is vivid and vibrant and brilliant. A little lemon sherbet. Spritzy and zesty, long and radiant, fresh and rapier-like. Truly exceptional. 95.
Partner Content
Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett Vieilles Vignes 2019 (9.5% alcohol; 1348 bottles). The only tragedy here is the tiny number of bottles. Wow! An electrically brilliant wine. So bright and crisp and fresh and pixilated in its seemingly perfect capturing of pure fruit. Creamier, richer and fuller than the ‘Dry GG’ but with even more natural acidity to compensate. Peach kernel. Tarte au citron. Lemon meringue pie. As tense as a high wire trapeze artist in a tornado. 98.
Zach, Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Vieilles Vignes 2019 (9.5% alcohol; 1281 bottles produced ). Incredible. An utterly brilliant wine with a more disguised tension in fact than the Kabinett, so well integrated and so complementary are the citrus notes and the residual sucrosity. Lemon meringue pie again supplemented with a parfumier’s essence of lemon. So sapid and scrunchingly juicy on the finish – like wringing out a wet towel. Tactile with the tense acidity and its energetic charge sending electric spikes up and down the spine and sending the hairs on the back of my neck into vertical raptures. Brilliant. 97.
Weingut Gunther Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Kabinett 2024 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; 7.5% alcohol). Wow! I was simply blown away by the sheer originality and quality of this wine, above all considering its price point, when I first tasted the 2023 last year. I am again. Profoundly fascinating aromatically, with distinct fresh ginger and ginger ale accompanying the slightly more conventional Riesling elements. Strikingly and brilliantly fresh. Here the accent is on confit pink grapefruit, lemon sorbet and fleur d’oranger. Miraculous! 96.
Weingut Gunther Steinmetz Neumagner Rosengärtchen GG Riesling 2024 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; 12.5% alcohol). The first release of this wine on la place (if was not part of last year’s first release from Gunther Steinmetz). Every bit as unique and wondrous as the other two cuvées, this is difficult to describe such is its aromatic complexity and its sheer singularity. It’s quite opulent and rich in a way, but there’s an almost visceral citrus acidity coursing through its veins that shatters any impression of fatness before it can form. But there’s an impressive viscosity and all the intensity that implies. Greengage. Damson skin. Mirabelle. White flowers and 51 shades of citrus. And very saline in its minerality. Fascinating. This is also difficult to read as it’s so incredibly youthful and a little closed on the palate at this early stage. 96.
Weingut Gunther Steinmetz Piesporter Treppschen GG Riesling 2024 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; 12.5% alcohol). From an incredibly steep sloping terraced vineyard of old vines (now 90 years in age) on a silvery grey slate soil. Another belter of wine from Gunther Steinmetz and, for me, the pick of the three releases. This is more classical, more composed in a way (despite the flint, lemon balm and hints of popcorn!), a little less racy and a little more introvert aromatically at least at first. It’s also much more grippy on the palate, with a fascinating touch of tannin that massages the fruit and draws it out over the palate almost more like a fine claret texturally. Once again, to seek to describe these wines is to risk sounding like something of an idiot – as they really do break the mould, requiring a certain stretching of the vinous vernacular! My advice is to stop reading and to taste this for yourself! 97.
Battenfeld Spanier Mölsheim Auf Dem Kalkofen Riesling 2023 (Rheinhessen; 100% Riesling; single vineyard; premier cru; 12.5% alcohol; certified organic). This is wonderfully original. The aromatics are brilliantly distinct with a fabulous, quite intense, fresh ginger note accompanying the cinnamon, white melon, fresh lemon, lime zest and white pear fruit. More terroir than Riesling in a way. There’s a brilliantly vivid limestone minerality to this that is very engaging and a delicate trace of crumbly tannins and the tannic grip they impart on the finish accentuating the sense of structure. Subtle, delicate in its way, highly refined and very classy. Quite intellectual. 94+.
Weingut Robert Weil Monte Nostrum Riesling Trocken 2023 (Rheingau; 100% Riesling; 12.5% alcohol). This was actually released on la place in March but let me add a note now that I have a first chance to taste it. This comes from the highest vineyard parcels of Weingut Robert Weil and is produced in vanishingly small quantities (alas). A brilliantly beguiling wine of utter purity and almost perfect crystallinity, the very essence of cool-climate Riesling – one can almost visualise the contours in the glass! Slightly smoky, slightly hazy, with a brilliant waft of flinty fresh gun smoke (the drawing of pistols at dawn to settle the feud!). This is wondrously fresh and vibrant, vivid and intense in its racy, zingy citrus-inflected acidity, and yet so utterly balanced and harmonious, elegant and refined. It needs to be tasted to be believed. You just have to hope there’s some left. 97.
Related news
Hors Bordeaux tasting: additional tasting notes
