Zilliken

The life of a Saar Riesling grower is not an easy one. Possibly one of the coldest and most marginal corners of Germany, the Saar can produce some of the world’s great white wine in hot sunny years such as 1990. However, these are usually outnumbered by cold wet years resulting in over astringent and unripe wines. There are a small band of growers though who have a distinct advantage over the rest in the land that they own. A handful of Saar vineyards are steep enough and exposed enough to ensure a decent level of grape ripening even in poor years. Hanno Zilliken is fortunate enough to have sizeable holdings in Saarburg’s great vineyard, the steep south-facing Rausch. He exploits these slate based vines to the maximum through careful pruning and hand selection. When the wine is pressed, it gently descends by gravity into the oak casks lying in Hanno’s dark damp cellars. The wines are prime examples of Saar Riesling, being mouthwateringly taut, mineral and sophisticated.

2023 Vintage

Rieslings from the Saar valley are characterised by what Dorothee Zilliken describes as a “stony weightlessness.” Slender in feel with a neat, vigorous line of freshness, the 2023 vintage here centers on energy and vitality, well suited to wines that have been allowed to run a little drier than usual. A more athletic year than, for example, 2018, 2019 and 2022, the Rieslings “found their own natural balance in the cellar so we left them to it.” In practice, this means dry wines not exceeding 5g of residual sugar and Kabinetten at around 40g – a return to traditional sugar levels of old. Happily, there is a Rausch Spätlese again this year, which will delight Zilliken followers. Harvest in the Saar began on 25th September and ran through to 18th October – a little longer than in recent years to allow for the strictest selections in the vineyard. A small amount of botrytis at the end of the season produced a tiny Rausch Auslese GK (01-24) which will be auctioned in November 2024 alongside a more concentrated, single fuder of Rausch Kabinett (03-24).

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