Page 4 - Tastings Journal - 2022 Hofgut Falkenstein

Made predominantly from old vine grapes that are hand harvested, tended to, and vinified in an old school manner, the intent of Hofgut Falkenstein has been to bring unadulterated, organic, and “low intervention” wines to the consumer long before any such marketing buzz words were being bandied about. Through these efforts a true site- by-site, barrel-by-barrel tasting experience is achieved. Riesling is gently pressed for two to three hours with musts left to settle overnight, and then racked with ambient yeast and fermented in a handful of Halbfuder and predominantly Fuder casks (1000 Liter barrels). These casks or Faß each bear an AP number and generally a nickname corresponding to the former owner of a given vineyard parcel or old site name. Parcels are only mixed if the size of a parcel and the yield of a vintage is too small to produce one press load, in which case two or more parcels from the same sector will be harvested at the same time. Most of the wines come from old vines grown primarily on south facing slopes with iron rich gray slate, such as the Niedermenniger Herrenberg, but there is also a smattering of quartz and quartzite bearing sandstone, as well as diabase intrusions on the western flank of Krettnacher Altenberg.