Country: | Germany |
Region: | Mosel |
Winery: | Richard Bocking |
Grape Type: | Riesling |
Organic: | Yes |
Vintage: | 2014 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Alte Reben Riesling Grosses Gewachs is made from 100 percent Riesling.
This is one of the greatest vineyards in the Middle Mosel. This precipitously steep, rocky vineyard consistently yields some of the most elegant and sophisticated white wines in the world. Citrus and white peach flavors predominate when the wines are young, turning to a pure expression of the mineral soil as they age.
Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Alte Reben Caldo Infernale made from 100 percent Riesling.
The Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Caldo Infernale was produced from over 100-year-old ungrafted vines in the Gewann “im Kalk,” the original part of the vineyard. This is a typical Devonian slate Riesling with fruity elegance and great durability.
Although riper elements of yellow peach, coconut, Victoria pineapple, and almond cream directly capture the attention, the nose maintains a fresh character with minty and zesty notes. The wine shows ripe and sweet elements on the palate, and has quite some creamy and juicy elements such as canned yellow peach and pineapple. The finish brings the right amount of zest to lift up the aromatics and adds focus and tension, while there is an almost Eiswein-type of acidity in the aftertaste. This is a gorgeous Auslese.
A heavenly, full-bodied dry Riesling with forceful minerality from 100-year-old vines grown in the blue slate soil of Graach.
Graach is a small village in the Mosel valley. It’s steep slate slopes produce wines that combine elegance with rustic strength. Grosses Gewächs (GG) is the designation for an estate’s best dry wine from a Grosse Lage (grand cru) vineyard. This limited-production wine was fermented with indigenous yeasts and kept in the barrel, on the full lees, for a year before bottling. The extended maturation time allows the wine to develop greater texture and a deeper natural harmony. This is a fully ripe wine, with vibrant aromatics and a pronounced acidity that gives it a brilliant structural precision.
Review:
Convincing proof that 2020 is an excellent vintage for dry GG on the Mosel! Cool and stony with delicate white-peach and white-currant aromas. Really takes off at the intensely slatey and racy finish.
-James Suckling 95-96 Points
Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese is made from 100 percent Riesling.
This deep yellow-colored wine offers a quite aromatic nose made of mirabelle, ripe apple, almond cream, date, ether oil, and earthy spices. It proves nicely complex and delicately oily on the otherwise focused and delicately racy palate, and leaves a subtly unctuous and still quite sweet feel of honeyed dried fruits, starfruit, kumquat, and almond cream in the precise and persistent finish. Some fresher elements of citrusy fruits and grapefruit already lighten up the aftertaste and hint at the greatness to come. This beautiful dessert wine is still really in its infancy but will develop into quite a beauty at maturity, once the candy floss driven sweetness will have receded into the background.
The Riesling Beerenauslese remains on the lees for several months to add a creamy texture to the mineral notes and to enhance the mouth-feel and drinkability.Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese Alte Reben was made from botrytized fruit hand-picked at a whopping 150° Oechsle from old ungrafted vines, spontaneously fermented and vegan. Fermentation with preferably wild yeasts gives this wine a unique and authentic taste, reflecting the extreme vineyard sites of the Mosel Valley. A cool temperature allows a slow fermentation which can continue for as long as the wine and the vintage requires.
Perfect match to sweet-and-sour dishes as well as spicy food.
Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese Josefsberg is made from 100 percent Riesling.
The Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese Josefsberg -Alte Reben- was made from fruit harvested from 120-year-old vines in a prime Rothlay part of the vineyard known locally as Josefsberg. Here grow old, ungrafted Riesling vines whose particular small and loose grapes develop a lot of aroma.
It was made from fruit picked at the end of the harvest and was fermented down to sweet levels of residual sugar. It offers a backward nose made of white peach, melon, smoke, herbs, and minerals. On the pleasant racy palate and the wine leaves a beautiful feel of ripe fruits packed into zesty minerals in the finish. The featherlight side of this Spätlese paired with its flavor intensity are simply a thing of beauty. However, during the years this wine will reveal all its facets.
Acidity 9.5 g/l
Residual sugar 72 g/l
Perfect match to Asian cuisine as well as spicy food.
Wolfberger Riesling Muenchberg Grand Cru is made from 100 percent Riesling.
The Muenchberg facing south terroir located in the commune of Nothalten benefits from a unique microclimate. From the 12th century, the Cistercian monks started cultivating the stony and sandy soils formed by volcanic sediments of 250 million years old. Hence the name of the terroir meaning “monks’ mountain”.
This volcanic stony, sandy soils absorb and retain the sunshine heat. They provide excellent drainage and rapid warming, as the ground in this small valley is protected from the rain. The Muenchberg terroir is perfectly suited for Riesling. The nobility of the varietal is due to its late-ripening character and a rare, real fullness from the exceptional terroir which, while unfertile, helps the vines produce fewer grapes with high concentration of flavors.
This Riesling Grand Cru Muenchberg shows a pale yellow color and gold tints. The nose develops complex citrus aromas, verbena and a mineral character. On the palate the wine is dense, fresh, full-bodied and sophisticated with elegant acidity. The finish develops refined bitterness, citrus peels flavors and a touch of salinity.
This Grand Cru matches well seafood, bass with sauce, sea bream with fennel, dry goat’s cheese, roasted poultry with Riesling sauce.
Richard Bocking Alte Reben Ungsberg is 100 percent Riesling.
This close-to-dry wine displays the perfect balance between pure, rich fresh fruit (pineapple, lemon and peach) and mineral flavors. Noticeable is a round and rich texture supported by focused slate. This wine can be enjoyed now and through 2015.
Alcohol 12% vol
Residual sugar 10.8 grams / liter,
Acidity: 7.0 grams / liter TA
High bearing potential
Fruit: 100% Riesling Appellation: Traben Trarbach, Germany Vineyard: The fruit for this wine comes from our sustainably farmed vineyards covered in blue and brown slate and quartz. The Ungsberg is known for the extreme pitch of the slopes high above the Mosel River. This wine comes exclusively from old vines (40-60 years old) and from a single vineyard. Vines have been grown on this spot since the 16th Century.
The fruit for this wine is deep, rich and intense, produced only from the best and oldest vines in this vineyard (40-60 years old). It is carefully hand picked later in the season to allow for ideal ripeness. All fruit is painstakingly hand sorted to allow only the best grapes to be crushed for the Single Cru. The juice is fermented by natural occurring yeast only- no added cultures- slowly at cold temperatures until the perfect balance of acidity and fruit is reached. The wine was aged sur lies for 10 months, then aged 100% German in oak barrels.
Review:
From 75-year-old vines in a site adjacent to the estate’s share of Schlossberg that faces west into the village of Trarbach and away from the Mosel, this bottling finished much drier than the estate’s other 2014s, but at 11 percent alcohol it still evinces a nice sense of levity. Clearer and brighter than the corresponding Schlossberg, its influences of malo and old barrique are in no way problematic, although along with lees influence they make for a subtle impression of creaminess. Apple, white peach and lime deliver generous, tangy juiciness, while stoniness and salinity add interest and saliva-inducement on the persistent finish. Vinous 90 Points
The Weingut Richard Bocking Winery
Our story embraces Classic Viticulture on the steep slopes of the Mosel River Valley with a 15-generation family tradition.
The extremely steep, slate-laced hillsides in the central region of the Mosel River offer optimal conditions for producing great Riesling wines. Since 1624 the Böcking Family has been devoted to producing wines of the highest quality – crisp, fruity wines that are the finest a Riesling enthusiast could desire.
The roots of the Böcking family can be traced to the early 17th Century, when the family was appointed regional treasurer under Prince Pfälz-Zweibrücken. Soon thereafter, the family became active in the budding wine production and trading business in Trarbach, purchasing what may be the oldest Riesling vineyard on the Mosel, the Trabacher Ungsberg. The Trarbacher Schlossberg vineyard was acquired soon thereafter.
The Böcking family has lived, loved and passed down the tradition of winemaking, along with portions of four steep-slope vineyards, to successive generations. It is their experience and dedication, combined with decades-old vines growing on rich, mineral soils, that allow the family to continue to produce the finest Mosel Riesling wines.
Recently, Denman Zirkle and daughter Sigrid Carroll, a direct descendant of Richard Böcking purchased the Estate from a cousin, Wolf von Marschall. Denman, along with his daughter, Sigrid Carroll, Wolf’s sister, Leweke von Marschall, and the winegrower, Simon Trös, combined tradition and history with confidence and entrepreneurial vision to lead the family enterprise into the future and reestablish its international following. Their focus is on natural viticulture and production, developing mostly drier Riesling wines to suit contemporary tastes in Germany and abroad.
In 2013, after almost 400 years, Böcking wines were introduced to the U.S. market for the first time. Importation into the United Kingdom began the following year.
In Germany, Böcking wines are being distributed by several large merchants, including Weinkontor Freund ( http://www.weinkontor-freund.de ), one of the largest in Germany. Freund serves over 2,000 restaurants and retail clients, many high end. Until 2014, Freund specialized in wines from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. When he added Germany in 2014, Richard Böcking is the only winery on the Mosel he chose to represent."
In the United States, Böcking is represented by importer Kysela Pere et Fils, named Importer of the Year in 2013 by Wine Enthusiast magazine. The wines are currently being distributed in the Mid-Atlantic states, District of Columbia, and Montana. Please click here see where to purchase our wines.
The Weingut Richard Bocking Vineyards
The character of the wines is shaped by the distinctive Grand Cru, steep slope vineyards of which Richard Böcking has 15 acres under cultivation. The plantings are 95% Riesling and 5% Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir). Of the five vineyards: Ungsberg, Burgberg, Schlossberg, Huenerberg and Taubenhaus, four are classified as Grand Cru with vintage vines up to 80 years old. The age of the vines force the roots of these grape vines deep into the ground for water and nutrition. Thus, the vines are constantly absorbing their nutrition, even during unseasonably dry periods. The constant nourishment provides vines that are strong, disease resistant, and produce small, compact grapes with an unusual concentration of fruit.
Richard Böcking develops their wines by hand, from the vineyard to the bottle. Unadulterated; with an originality that can be produced only in a natural vineyard environment. From this tenet springs Böcking's fundamental philosophy—a philosophy of allowing a wine to develop naturally. In the steep-slope vineyards, this philosophy means the small vineyard parcels are cultivated individually and by hand. All wines are developed as bio-dynamically as possible, using naturally occurring yeast and introducing only the sparest amount of sulfur. This meticulous attention to natural agriculture and production creates beautifully finished wines while sustaining the vineyards for the future.
The 2017 was a very different year to 2016 in terms of the viticultural conditions and it was interesting to watch the progression of the wine and scrutinize its quality as it developed over its first two winters. Whereas 2016 had a very mild winter and exceptionally hot summer, this was compensated by abundant winter and spring rainfall. Conversely, 2017 was warm and drythroughout, although summer temperatures were closer to average, whichproved to be a very significant factor allowing for complete, balancedripening.
It is rare to see such tremendous depth and intensity in color as this winedisplays. The freshness of the floral aromas is very attractive with adominance of rockrose, a flower that grows wild around the hills of Senhorada Ribeira. On the palate, it is exceptionally full-bodied, rich andpowerful with black fruit coming to the fore. Gorgeous, ripe fruit isbalanced by the fine tannin structure. On the finish, it is typically Dow,austere and somewhat drier than many other ports. The intense fruit flavors linger long on the palate.
Dow’s Vintage Ports are only produced in years of exceptional quality and represent only a very small part of the total company’s production in that year. On average only two or three times every ten years are the weather conditions sufficiently good to allow for the making of Dow’s Vintage Port.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Dow’s Vintage Ports have been landmark wines in virtually every great year, consistently setting the standards amongst all Port houses. Vintage Ports such as the remarkable Dow 1896, the 1927, 1945, 1955, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1980 and the Dow 1994 are all legends in the history of this great wine. These Ports are still magnificent today, even when 50 or over 100 years old. Few wines can claim this quality and this pedigree.
Dow's Vintage Ports are drawn from the companies' finest vineyards; Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta de Senhora da Ribeira. Each property contributes to the Dow’s unique and distinctive style. When young, Dow’s Vintage Ports are purple-black, austere, complex and intensely concentrated, full-bodied and balanced with very fine peppery tannins.
Over the centuries, the Dow winemakers have evolved a style that suits the house’s key vineyards; fermentations are a little longer, resulting in a drier Port Wine that has become the hallmark of Dow’s. Abundant fruit flavours with hints of ripe blackberries, give elegance and poise to Dow’s. The nose is deep and powerful with strong overtones of violets when young, these mature into fine cinnamon and rose-tea aromas with age. The very high percentage of Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional planted on the vineyards result in the powerful structure and aging potential of Dow’s Vintage Ports
Dow’s Ports avoid an over-rich style and requires a very high degree of skill in wine making and great experience in selecting the finest wines of each year and each vineyard. These wines are aged in seasoned oak casks for some 18 months and are bottled without any filtration or fining whatsoever.
Dow Vintage Ports can be enjoyed when vibrant and young or they can be allowed to age for many years in bottle into a soft and delicate wine of velvet-like elegance.
In the 1920’s, the celebrated Oxford Professor George Saintsbury underlined Dow’s outstanding reputation when he wrote in his famous ‘Notes on a Cellarbook’ (first published in 1920), “There is no shipper’s wine that I have found better than the best of Dow’s 1878 and 1890 especially.”
James Suckling, one of today’s leading authorities on Vintage Port was equally impressed by another legendary wine - the Dow’s 1896 - “The ancient {1896} Port still had an amazing ruby colour with a garnet edge, and it smelled of raisins, black pepper and berries. It was full-bodied, with masses of fruit intertwined with layers of velvety tannins. It was superb.” In 1998, when this wine was 102 years old, he awarded this Port an exceptional 98 points.
Review:
Based on fruit from the predominantly south-facing Quinta do Bomfim in the Cima Corgo and Quinta Senhora da Ribeira in the Douro Superior, with Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca making up 80% of the blend. This is opaque and closed in but powerfully ripe with underlying pure berry fruit. It's seemingly quite introverted compared to some of its peers at this stage, but it's still full, rich and opulent on the palate. It also shows the latent power of the vintage, made as it is in a slightly drier style (3.4 Baumé), with lovely minty fruit and full, ripe sinewy tannins all the way through the finish. Long and lithe, and very fine.
-Decanter 97 Points
A dense, thickly textured version, dripping with warm salted licorice, tar and açaí paste notes, while plum and blueberry pâte de fruit, chai spice and chocolate elements fill in behind. Lots of brambly grip flows underneath. Shows a very sappy feel on the finish. Best from 2035 through 2055. 5,250 cases made, 1,092 cases imported
-Wine Spectator 96 Points
This is a dry while also floral wine, perfumed and enticing with its juicy acidity. At the same time, the structure is very present, showing power and dark black fruits. The balance is coming together with the rich fruits and tannins melding into one. Drink from 2028. ROGER VOSS
-Wine Enthusiast 96 Points
Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate brightening of the edges. Black wildberry jam underlaid with delicate herbs and spices, tobacco nuances, hints of blueberry jam and elderberries, schisty notes. Powerful, full-bodied, sweetness present, carrying tannins, dark nougat in the finish, very good length, an imperious style, built for a long life.
Falstaff 98 Points
Trione Pinot Noir River Road Ranch is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
River Road Ranch encompasses 115 acres in the heart of the Russian River Valley appellation. Located on the western bench of the Santa Rosa Plain, the vineyard thrives in well-drained soils. The region's fog-cooled nights are ideal for this varietal.
This Pinot Noir presents aromas of dark cherry, exotic spice, green tea and a slight earthiness we call forest floor. The wine is silky on the palate, beautifully balanced, with a long finish. The Pinot Noir's firm structure suggests excellent aging potential, 10-15 years.
We made this Pinot Noir in small lots, using traditional techniques —fermenting in open-top tanks and hand-plunging the caps during primary fermentation. To accentuate the outstanding fruit flavors, we added 20% whole clusters to the each fermenter. The Pinot Noir aged twelve months in French oak barrels (40% new) from coopers Meyrieux Traditional House and Remond.
Review:
"A savory and mossy pinot noir with racy berries, licorice and ash. Some coca cola, too. This is deep and decadent with some dried roses and wet earth on the palate and some darker fruit and herbs in the lengthy finish. Drink or hold."
- James Suckling (June 2022), 92 pts