2021 Robert Weil Kiedrich Monte Vacano Riesling Rheingau

"The 2021 Riesling Monte Vacano is named after Wilhem Weil’s great-grandmother. Her dowry bought a vineyard parcel within the steepest part of the Gräfenberg, bordering the Turmberg. It is a slightly later ripening site. The wine was first made in 2018 and released in 2020. It spent 22 months on gross lees and was bottled in August 2023. The nose has notions of dried fruit, with an orange peel edge against a hazelnut background. The fluid palate is rounded, compact, smooth, concentrated and vivid, like a droplet of gold. Lemon notes give the 2021 its freshness. It's luminous in the most compact fashion possible. The mouthfeel is creamy and rich without an ounce of fat. The 2021 is a profound crater of schist, filled to the brim with fruit. Texturally, it is like the gentle brush of a cat's paw. Limited release. (Bone-dry)" ~97 Vinous Media

"A huge and compact wine for the challenging 2021 vintage, but with the firm structure and vivid acidity that are typical for the vintage. Complex aromas of red gooseberry, white peach, fresh herbs and just a hint of sealing wax. Then comes the tidal wave of a finish that is stony and herbal in the best sense. From the steepest and stoniest section of the Grafenberg. Drink from release." ~97 James Suckling

"Bottled in July 2023 after 21 months on the first lees (one year after the Gräfenberg), the 2021 Monte Vacano, from a particular plot of the Gräfenberg, is an intensely yellow Riesling that opens with a pure, intense, even rich, finely saline and mineral nose with citrus notes. Round and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich, intense, textural, enormously long, complex and saline, stimulatingly precise and tannic Monte Vacano with the power and richness of the Gräfenberg paired with the precision and salinity of the Castellum Montis. It is more hedonistic, although from a cooler year, but very, very long, saline and savory. Definitely a wine made for generations. To be released in April 2024." ~97 Wine Advocate