Bright Riesling from great sites

Family producer slated for greatness

On a late winter's day recently I met Peter Griebeler and tasted his wines. He and his brother Ulrich only took over in 2014 and they find themselves with a stellar vintage in 2015. Peter trained as a viticulturalist - his first love, but is now also winemaker and forklift driver among other roles.

Their family has owned Heinrichshof for 10 generations and historically sold virtually all their wine at the cellar door, but both Peter and Ulrich, between them now running the family estate, have travelled and worked abroad and seek a new way of working. Peter's time in California and his high level winemaking jobs in Germany have convinced him that running a cellar door operation on a small farm that costs so much to run is not the best use of time. And when each of their hectares takes nearly 600 hours per year to tend using organic methods you can understand why.

Those vineyards cling to steep slate slopes by Zeltingen and the Rieslings we're offering show the terroir with great clarity. Each of the vineyard sites shows differently but what all the wines have in common is fabulous balance, texture and Mosel purity. Attention to detail is amazing: as an example Peter's parents had transferred everything to screw-cap. Peter has reverted to cork for the last three wines in our list - the ones he wants you to age - but each cork costs the same as a bottle of cheap wine. The wines are delicious and different to our other German producers in their slightly softer, easier approach to acidity. /CW

Offered subject to remaining unsold; available April 2017