From a very dry and sunny vintage, the harvest at Wagner-Stempel started in early September, earlier than ever before, but the grapes for the 2018 Heerkretz Riesling GG weren't picked that early (between September 20 and October 8). "The fall was already frighteningly beautiful," says Daniel Wagner, for whom 2018 is a "dream vintage." "The grapes were rather loose-grained, healthy and yellow."
The wine fermented to bone dry (1.3 grams per liter of residual sugar) and opens with a clear, refined and flinty bouquet with crystalline, rocky stone and iodine aromas intertwined with ripe and healthy fruit and real substance. A touch of Mosel here rather than Nahe is what spontaneously comes to my mind. On the palate, this is a pure, dense and saline Heerkretz with prominent phenols or slightly drying grip. More sugar would have made the palate rounder, but I am convinced the 2018 will develop very well over the years. It is an excellent wine to pair with food, fish, of course, and everything that's pure, fresh and saline. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted from magnum at the domaine in late August 2023.