Riesling, Kastanianbusch, Grosses Gewächs, 2017

Name: Riesling, Kastanianbusch, Grosses Gewächs
Brand: Okonomierat Rebholz
Price: 308.74 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2017 2018 2020 2021

justerini & brooks tasting note

The flagship vineyard in the Rebholz estate is also the highest in the whole of the Pfalz, and counterintuitively the one with the oldest soils. The Rotliengdes found in the Kastanianbusch basin is an ancient type of iron rich red slate found nowhere else in the Pfalz that holds heat well and produces profoundly mineral, complex wines. In 2017 it is both complex and complete, with a set of elemental, earth and slate aromas that move from gunflint, to smoke, to fine black tea, before apricot and peach come to the fore. Everything is very keenly presented on the palate, fruit and minerals in a perfectly coordinated dance, deep, taut, textural and resonant. There’s huge ageing potential here and anyone with the ability to wait will be richly rewarded.

critic reviews

96/100Stephan Reinhardt,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2017 Kastanienbusch Riesling GG is very clear and elegant on the nose and exhibits aromatic lychee fruit with cool slate, salt and grated lemon peel as a counterpoint. Juicy and very elegant on the palate, with a fine texture, this is a dense, concentrated and stimulatingly salty Riesling. The 2017 is a complex, large Kastanienbusch with a lot of substance and incipient maturity. Tasted at the Rebholz Kastanienbusch/Christmann Idig/Wittmann Morstein vertical tasting in Westhofen in August 2024.

DRINKING WINDOW 2024 - 2045

date of review 10/2024

95/100David Schildknecht,Vinous

The nose offers a wealth of meadow-like herbal and floral nuances, along with intimations of zesty lemon, persimmon, earthy winter squash and piquantly pit-tinged white peach. Amazingly, there is even greater richness and grip, not to mention animating juiciness, when compared with the already enormously impressive vintage 2017 Ganz Horn. The mouthfeel is palpably extract-rich and almost plush, yet shot through with bright lemon as well as lusciously evocative of ripe white peach; the finish is not just palate-staining but positively mouth-shaking. While this offering might be a bit less nuanced than the corresponding 2016, it approaches that wine’s uncanny sense of buoyancy while delivering more than compensatory energy and sheer abundance of flavor.

DRINKING WINDOW 2019 - 2030

date of review 03/2019