The slate on the bottleneck
At Clemens Busch the capsule is red, grey or blue, depending on which slate the wine was grown on.
In stock. Fast shipping via DHL or DHL Express.
Securely packed and insured against breakage and loss.
In stock. Fast shipping via DHL or DHL Express.
Securely packed and insured against breakage and loss.
One click adds all six to your basket. You can remove or swap single wines there.
One click adds them all to your basket. You can remove or swap single wines there.
- Riesling "vom grauen Schiefer" 202417,50 €
- Riesling "vom roten Schiefer" 202417,50 €
- Riesling Marienburg Grosses Gewächs 202439,00 €
- Riesling Marienburg Grosses Gewächs "Rothenpfad" 202339,00 €
- Riesling Marienburg Grosses Gewächs "Fahrlay" 202344,49 €
- Riesling Marienburg Grosse Lage "Felsterrasse" 2017109,00 €
Our pick
The only blue slate in the Marienburg is in the Fahrlay. I would order its Großes Gewächs together with the two village wines and put all three on the table one evening with friends.
From the wine letter
At Clemens Busch the capsule is red, grey or blue, depending on which slate the wine was grown on. All three slates lie within the Marienburg, the steep slope opposite Pünderich. In 1971 the German wine law merged this slope with its neighbouring sites, and some 23 hectares became around 90 under a single name. That is why Busch bottles his single-vineyard wines under the old parcel names.
Clemens Busch was seventeen when he joined the family estate in 1974. At nineteen he stopped using herbicides. Behind this, as he told the American importer Louis/Dressner in 2014, lay a simple observation: “Why can’t we live with the herbs?” In 1984 he took over and switched to organic viticulture; today he works biodynamically. The estate now belongs to his son Johannes, and the two of them make the wine together. For the smaller set we have combined the village wines from grey and red slate with the blue: the Großes Gewächs from the Fahrlay, a dry wine from a Große Lage, or grand cru site. The larger set contains all six wines in this letter.
P.S. For evenings without a Großes Gewächs there is the Riesling trocken 2025, the least expensive Clemens Busch wine we have. It comes from several grey-slate parcels in the Marienburg. Approx. €12.
The wines in this letter
The grapes from the steep grey-slate sites of the Marienburg were picked by hand in late October and fermented spontaneously in old Fuder casks. Stone dust, lemon and lime run through the nose and palate; the wine is very pure and, at eleven per cent alcohol, has plenty of energy. With smoked trout and horseradish.
17,50 €incl. VAT
Since the 2003 vintage Busch has bottled the red slate as a wine of its own, from the younger vines of the Rothenpfad and from the Nonnengarten west of the Marienburg. It smells of yellow fruit with an exotic touch and tastes ripe. With pumpkin and ginger curry.
17,50 €incl. VAT
This Großes Gewächs comes only from the original part of the Marienburg, directly below the former monastery, where vines more than forty years old, most of them ungrafted, grow in grey slate. The Vinum Weinguide writes of this vintage: “At once present and restrained.” With veal sweetbreads and morels.
39,00 €incl. VAT
No track leads into the Rothenpfad above the railway viaduct. The vines for the Großes Gewächs stand there each on its own stake in soft red clay slate and are at least eighty years old. James Suckling found wild berries, herbs and a touch of forest floor, and gave it 97 points. The American importer Bowler calls the Rothenpfad a white wine for red meat. With saddle of lamb and thyme.
39,00 €incl. VAT
The Fahrlay lies by the ferry landing, and its blue slate is considerably harder than the grey and the red. According to Bowler, the site gives its wines lustre and florality, along with sizzling acidity and great staying power. With sole in brown butter.
44,49 €incl. VAT
In the Falkenlay, beneath a rock face from which stones keep falling, the vines of the Felsterrasse, more than ninety years old, grow in light grey slate with iron-bearing layers. The estate calls the Felsterrasse its “declared favourite parcel” and writes that the wine shows what it is made of only after a few years in bottle. With poularde in Riesling cream sauce.
109,00 €incl. VAT