2010 Hexamer Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling Spätlese, Nahe, Germany

ABOUT THIS WINE

The Schloßböckelheimer “Felsen” cover around 6.9 hectares, of which 4.3 hectares – without exception purely south facing – are in our possession. In the steepest area, the vineyard has a 70% gradient – a location with exceptional character.

The rock that forms the floor here, porphyrite, is weathered on the surface; together with the small and large fragments of porphyry, it forms the soil horizon that can be developed for the vines. The gray to almost black rock is enormously rich in minerals, especially calcium, but also magnesium, potassium and many other nutrients and trace elements are represented in large numbers. Together with the porphyry slope above our vineyard, the rock acts as a heat store, of course also thanks to its south-facing orientation.

The wines from the “rocks” ideally complement our Meddersheim Rieslings – with an equally pronounced but very different minerality, a very typical subtle smoky note, a lot of yellow fruits in the fragrance and a soft acidity, these wines are the perfect counterweight to our steel, quartzite embossed Meddersheim Rieslings.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Harold Hexamer’s meticulous work in the vineyard is marked by pruning to control yields (“often six to eight bunches per wine”) and hand-harvesting. The grapes are picked exclusively by hand and fermented very cold (below 12 degrees celsius) with cooling utilized only when necessary – “but we often pick so late we bring naturally cold fruit — below 10 degrees — back to the winery.” Hexamer handles the wine as little as possible: no dosage is used, inoculations are made only with native yeasts, and all wines are whole-cluster pressed. 95% of all Rieslings at Hexamer are made in stainless steel and racked only once, three to six weeks after fermentation is complete. The wines are bottled early to preserve their vigor. For the Burgundian varieties, Harald constructed his own barrels in Meddersheim using oak from the Hunsrück forest seasoned for 5 years. When tasting the wines, one sees the purity of the vineyards, the intensity of minerality, and remarkable clarity. Hexamer’s wines are balanced in the ultraviolet spectrum; they’re steely, acid-driven, clean, and transparent.