Enkircher Ellergrub Riesling - Grosse Lage - Weingut Immich-Batterieberg

This Riesling grows on one of the most impressive sites in the entire Middle Mosel: the Starkenburger Fels, about two hundred meters upstream from the historic Batterieberg. The Ellergrub is the steepest and largest Enkirch site, facing west towards the Mosel, characterized by finely eroded, dark blue Devonian slate. On this plot stand over eighty-year-old, ungrafted vines that escaped the phylloxera catastrophes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a genetic heritage that hardly exists anymore in the Mosel. The winery operates according to organic principles; together with its organically certified neighbors, the Ellergrub forms the largest contiguous organic vineyard in the entire Mosel.

In the glass, it presents itself in a deep, luminous straw yellow. The nose is dense and multifaceted: yellow stone fruit, a hint of pome fruit compote, spices, wild herbs, and a fine balsamic depth, along with the cool, salty impression of the blue slate. On the palate, the wine appears rich in extract, powerful, and very dry, supported by a finely chiseled, harmonious acidity and a silky, almost oily texture. The finish is long, invigorating, and unusually clear. A wine of great calm and inner tension.

The grapes are hand-picked, gently pressed, and, after a short maceration period of a few hours, directly and slightly turbidly placed into barrels. Fermentation is 100% spontaneous with wild yeasts from the vineyard; subsequently, the wine matures until August of the following year on the full lees in small used wooden barrels, primarily barriques and 500-liter barrels. Only micro-oxidation is deliberately allowed, the wood itself should play no aromatic role in the finished wine. The wine receives its first sulfur addition only at bottling; until then, it works unprotected and self-confidently with itself.

A Mosel Riesling for the long haul, the Ellergrub is considered arguably the most subtle and finest wine of the winery, a long-distance runner with a drinking window of several decades.