The Leitz Riesling Eins Zwei Dry 2011 is Jancis Robinson's latest wine of the week. The producers of this wine visited london last month to present their lastest vintage,2011. There was one wine from the Rheingau that really impressed Jancis. This is what she had to say:
"There was one wine I was captivated by: this entry-level, as they call it, dry Rieslingfrom the talented Johannes Leitz, one of the brightest sparks of the Rheingau. And I swear it wasn't just the clever name, a play on the German for 1-2-3, that appealed."
"Balance is all with a dry Riesling. You need to have just the right amount of acidity to counterbalance the relatively low residual sugar. Too much and the wine tastes hard and austere. Too little - well, very few Rieslings have too little acidity in my experience. This wine is seductively open and accessible already. Unlike many more 'serious' Rieslings, it has clearly been made to be drunk in its first two or three years, but is still hugely tangy, juicy and appealing. This wine is really beautifully balanced. Just right! The residual sugar level is a modest 8.2 g/l and the total acidity is 8.5 g/l. It's all of 12.3% alcohol, which is quite a lot for a German wine but leaves it a versatile choice as either a drink on its own or with food."
"The fruit comes from the eastern stretch of the Rheingau between Geisenheim and Wiesbaden, with the biggest contribution from the highly respected Geisenheimer Rothenberg vineyard. Grapes also come from Oestricher Lenchen, Mittelheimer Nikolaus, Martinsthaler Rödchen and Geisenheimer Fuchsberg, most of which are recognised as Erste Gewächse, top sites."
The article also tells us that the main soil types are loess and loam with some quartz and slate. This is backed up by Leitz's very own description.
"Ice Age dust is found in most of our vineyard soils. Storm winds moved these fine dust particles from ancient gravel beds deposited by wide rivers. The dust dropped out of the wind in sheltered locations and accumulated in thick loess beds. The fragile substrate makes it easy for roots to penetrate deep into the soil and reach water and nutrients. The most important property of the loess is its high available soil water capacity. The silty soil is easy to manage but is also readily washed away. The sandy loess is partially mixed with gravel sediments of the former terrace banks of the Rhine, with quartzite or slate or coarse coastal sediments from the Tertiary period."
View the full article on JancisRobinson.com here
