Region: Mosel, Germany

Varietal: 100% Riesling

Tasting Notes: Very clear, spicy and slatey on the nose. Wonderfully delicate and lush on the palate, with clear and exotic fruit but also great finesse and elegance, this is a perfectly balanced and enormously stimulating Kabinett whose finish reveals an exciting salinity and lightness. Analytically sweet for European palates but rather medium-dry for Americans.

Producer: The Mönchhof (the “Monks House or Monks Court”), formerly a possession of the Cistercian Abbey at Himmerod, is one of the oldest wine estates in the Mosel valley. As early as 1177 documents from Pope Alexander III show the abbey owned vineyards in and around the village of Ürzig. Three centuries after the monks built the vaulted cellars, which are still in use today, the monks completed the estate manor in 1509. After the secularization period, the Eymael family purchased the estate from Napoleon in 1804 at an auction in Paris. Today, cellar and and vineyard master Philippe Conzen manages the estate.

Vineyard & Winemaking: The Mönchhof’s first class vineyards are comprised of the very steep Ürzig Würzgarten, Erden Treppchen and a core holding in one of the most prized jewels in the Mosel valley, the Erden Prälat vineyard. They are planted 100% to Riesling, all with original rootstocks. The great strength of the steep slope vineyards is to capture enough heat and sunlight for the vines even in cool years. That is why Würzgarten, Treppchen and Prälat have been considered Grand Crus of the Mosel for centuries. Ürziger Würzgarten, specifically, is a steep vineyard with volcanic red soil and red slate. The average vine age 80 years.