2018 Dr. Bürklin-Wolf 'Hoheburg P.C.' Riesling Ruppertsberger

Winemaker Notes:  In 1597, Bernhard Bürklin, town clerk and mayor of Wachenheim, founded Germany's largest privately owned estate, Bürklin-Wolf. The estate is based in the Mittelhaardt, the quality core of Germany’s Pfalz, located an hours drive north‐east of Alsace. Aptly, the Pfalz Mittelhardt is the topographical and geological extension of France’s Côte d’Or and Alsace. The Mittelhardt’s best sites are similarly located within a very narrow, sheltered east‐facing strip of land.This historic estate has a 400 year history and is the largest family owned winery in Germany with 110 hectares. The vineyards are located in Wachenheim, Forst, Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg including the monopol sites "Wachenheimer Rechbächel" and "Gaisböhl" in Ruppertsberg.

Disillusioned with confusing German wine laws that rated all vineyards equal and defined quality by sugar level, Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze made a radical decision in 1994 to focus on terroir-driven, dry, 100% riesling vineyard-designated bottlings. Her model is that of Burgundy, with 4 tiers of quality : basic "estate" wine, named "village" cuvées, premiers crus (which she calls P.C.) and grands crus (G.C.). After historical and geological research, she discovered that her own classification matched the Royal Bavarian Vineyard Classification of 1828.Bettina made the decision to undertake a total conversion to BIODYNAMIC VITICULTURE, COMPLETED IN 2005, and Burklin-Wolf has thus become the first German member of the prestigious Biodyvin group.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Vinous - "'This represents the heaviest soils amoung our Ruppertsberg vineyards,' noted Libelli of Hoheberg, nearly half of whose 49 acres Burklin-Wolf owns, 'and it nearly always exhibits the lowest acidity' among the estate's site-specific bottlings. (Though this year, that's not quite the case.) 'One of our large parcels here,' he added 'has north-south orientation, so it gets a bit more shade, and it gives a more precise and expressive wine, while fruit from east-west oriented parcels goes into the village-level bottling.' Both nose and palate are generously peachy and subtly earthy in Ruppersberg-typical fashion, with smokiness of black tea and piquancy of peach kernel. A glossy texture complements this wine's richness of fruit, while sweaty salinity stimulates the salivary glands on an impressively persistent as well as satisfyingly refreshing finish. "