2019 Riesling Johannisberg

The 50-70 year old vines at Johannisberg are located near the Goldberg and Rosensteig single vineyards and dominated by 15 million-year-old sandy calcareous and conglomerate rock soils. Yields are often very low, but the fruit character is extremely dense and doesn’t drop acidity even when picked as late as early November. As with the majority of the Geyerhof wines, they are often the last family still harvesting fruit. The 2019 was whole bunch pressed, intentionally oxidized (browned) in the press tray, fermented in stainless steel and then left on the lees until February. The 6 g/l of RS adds roundness without obvious sweetness and there’s still 13.5% alcohol to tie the whole thing together. It has all the freshness you’d expect from an Austrian Riesling, but definitely has one toe in the Grosses Gewächs pool as well.