Herrenberg Badischer Landwein 2019

The Chardonnay Herrenberg comes from a very old vineyard in the Baden part of the Tauber valley. The champagne clone is located in pure shell limestone. The site is significantly cooler than the classic Baden sites on the Upper Rhine. A part of the vineyard was harvested considerably earlier and found its way into the blank of blank. The rest was harvested in 2019 only in mid-October with about 92 °Oechsle. As always, here was worked with an old basket press and with spontaneous fermentation. The wine was fermented in used small wooden barrels. The Chardonnay was bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulfur addition.

medium straw yellow

The Herrenberg 2019 smells ripe and juicy on the one hand, citrusy and chalky on the other. It is remarkable how much it changes within a few days from a rather ripe, warm and yellow-fruited wine to more and more citrus fruit, chalkiness and coolness. Also the wood, which is more in the foreground at the beginning, then takes itself back more and more.

On the palate, the Chardonnay seems extremely young - which it still is. This is not a wine for the here and now, but one that needs time and is also made for it. On the palate, too, it is - just as in the aroma at the beginning - more yellow as well as fuller and only takes on a clear and precise shape with time. Yellow fruits then combine with a little unripe pineapple and a lot of yellow as well as a little green citrus fruit. The wood remains ever-so-slightly present in the background, while the acidity develops more and more precision and cutting edge. The wine has a fine creamy texture and shows a hint of best caramel in the finish.