ALMA

Full bottle 1,256 g. Ripe and healthy Riesling grapes from the Ried Grillenparz in Stein, fermented in amphora. ‘Our amphoras are sunken into the ground of the garden next to the winery and the apricot orchard.’ First vintage was 2011. After destemming, the grapes were slightly crushed. Juice and skins were put into amphorae where fermentation took seven weeks. During this time as well as for the rest of winter, the wine rested cool and untouched in buried amphorae. Late April the wine was racked from the amphorae into a small tank and sulphured for the first time. Sedimentation by gravity only. A few more rackings clarified the cloudy wine. Bottled unfiltered in June 2021. TA 7 g/l, RS 4 g/l. Very pale gold. One of the palest in this line-up of skin-fermented whites. Intense and pure honey-and-lemon Riesling aroma with a light floral scent. Spicy too with that sort of minerality of Riesling starting to mature in the bottle. Definite tannins but not as tannic as I would have expected, just gently chewy, finishing with a hint of sour/tangy apricot. Very good balance between the high acidity and the little bit of residual sugar, so that it tastes pretty dry even with the hint of wild honey. Long, too. Drinking range: 2022 - 2026 Rating: 16.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2022)