This was a Special day. After having tasted some of Robert Weil’s top wines at the 2006 vintage presentation, we had the opportunity to try 2 of Josef Leitz’ dry Rieslings. Whereas Weil’s wines are well known since ages- they delivered many wines to royal families in the 19th century -Josef Leitz has only build up his reputation in the last years and did so with a totally different style of dry wines. Weil’s Gräfenberg Rieslings are generally more slim and filigrane with a subtle minerality game (The 2006 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Erstes Gewächs is much more closed than the 2005 and could be more of a long runner by the way), whereas the wines of Joseph Leitz from Rüdesheim are presenting themselves as powerful Riesling bombs!
We started with a bottle 2005 Berg Schlossberg Spätlese. It was fruity and dense, nearly creamy on the palate with little acidity and at the same time had a dense and powerful extract stroking your palate. And this wasn’t due to alcohol since it only has 12,5 % - Unbelievable, how did they do that? This wine was just exploding in your mouth and seemed to transport flavors and aromas to every inch of your body. And still, it appeared balanced, had clear minerality and everything you would expect from a great Riesling, including a terrific length. Could this be topped?
As a second bottle we tasted the 2006 Berg Rottland Alte Reben Spätlese. This wine representend a climax in terms of power and is a true giant. It seemed so alive, like a tiny hurricane on your palate and it had a length which echoed on forever. Ok, this one certainly had a little more alcohol than its sibling (I think it was 14 degrees), but again it was balanced and didn’t appear overdone.
So these were 2 great discoveries. I already had another Riesling in the same style before which was from Wegeler, but I believe it is a style we can expect to appear more and more and not only in the Rheingau - Keller in Rheinhessen does it for example but also F.X. Pichler and some other Austrian Estates. I have nothing against such a development since it makes this noble grape variety much more versatile and I have nothing against diversity, and concerning food matches for example, such a Riesling could even go with red meats, although I’d prefer it with poultry or rabbit in a very aromatic sauce.
Now I’m actually looking forward to visiting the estate and try some more of Josef Leitz’ wines. I’d recommend any Riesling drinker to once experience this style of wine and especially these 2 bottles we had.