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Robert Weil: The Glittering 2021s

Robert Weil: The Glittering 2021s

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“Weil is widely seen as the jewel of Rheingau.” Jancis Robinson, Financial Times
 
“Robert Weil has been one of the icons of German wine culture for many years. Nothing but the finest Rieslings are produced. And as more than 100 years ago, the wines are distinguished in terms of their origins and their style.” Stephan Reinhardt, The Finest Wines of Germany
 
“Another of Germany’s most celebrated domaines, Weil’s wines are noted for their richness and purity, delivering lots of citrus and fruit concentration, without ever seeming heavy or ponderous.” Rajat Parr & Jordan Mackay, The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste

Great wine elicits powerful emotions, and plenty of that was going around when we tasted the scintillating 2021 vintage with Wilhelm Weil and Nicolas Langer in Germany last year. Firstly, there was relief. 2021 was a nail-biting year in the vineyards. You name it, Germany’s vineyards probably got it—unseasonal rain, flooding, hail and storms. But then, excitement. Seldom can a vintage so challenging in the vineyards yield such impressive wines.
 
A far cry from the season’s early travails, the resulting wines are super pure and electric: all glistening extract, thrilling freshness and mineral clarity. When searching for a comparable vintage, Weil looks back to the quicksilver years of 1990 and 2004, a time when the Rheingau’s cool climate was still a thing! Key to the style of the year was September’s Indian Summer that heralded sun-fuelled days helping to ripen the year’s low yields, while cool nights preserved the vintage’s quivering, elevated acidity. Then, of course, the steep, ventilated and well-drained vineyards, along with the precision in the sites and in the cellar, all played a role.

From grapes harvested at least two weeks later than in 2020, you’ll find ample, silky density buoyed by moderate alcohols and a surge of energy that comes from a lighter place than the three preceding vintages. And in contrast with those years, ’21’s flavours shimmy from a more exotic spectrum in the direction of citrus, crystalline white fruit and herbal nuances. The notes below, and our tastings, all point to a don’t-miss year from a Rheingau great.
 
The entry-level Rieslings are already at the party, while the single-site wines—cocooned by their tight structures and high extract—will be more slow-burning, especially compared to the approachable 2020s. We are also offering Weil’s towering 2021 Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs as a pre-arrival. The domaine is cellaring its GG for a longer period, and this will arrive in September. Small volumes of Weil’s breathtaking sweeter Prädikat styles were also produced in 2021. Let there be light.

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