2014 Riesling Heissenberg

The vineyard Heissenberg is 0.75 hectares located outside the village of Nothalten. ‘Heissenberg’ translates into ‘the hot mountain’, which refers to the heat-driven microclimate. The vineyard is incredibly steep, south-facing and is the last sandstone hill before the junction point with the granitic part of the Vosges mountains. Domaine Ostertag has been farmed biodynamically since 1998. Soil is pink sandstone along with gneiss. The grapes are whole-bunch pressed for eight hours with pneumatic press then fermented in stainless steel. Only indigenous yeast is used. All the domaine’s Rieslings are aged in 100% stainless steel. Ripe citrus, almost tropical, fruit. Intense and powerful on the mid palate with relatively low acidity for the variety. Seems to be developing quite quickly, perhaps it is that hot mesoclimate. (JH)