Salzberg 2018 1500ml

The Salzberg is a sun-drenched site with a purely southern exposure and lies directly above the winery. It encompasses a wide range of soil formations from clayey-silty to chalky to sandy-gravelly and thus offers perfect conditions for Blaufränkisch. The Salzberg is a dry site, which results in small, thick-skinned, but highly aromatic and extract-rich grapes. They are harvested by hand, fermented spontaneously and left on the skins in wooden fermentation racks for three weeks, then gently pressed with a basket press and aged for 48 months in 500-litre barrels before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Dark ruby red with a black opaque core.

The 2018 Salzberg by Gernot and Heike Heinrich is not a wine that immediately takes you in its arms and indulges in heavy-handed familiarity. One suspects that composure is called for here if one wants to approach it and one quickly realises that one can be rewarded for this with something great, if only one brings along a little patience. Concentrated dark fruit, heart cherries, plums and mulberries, followed by dark and earthy notes. Forest floor, coffee and dark chocolate along with mild spices like black cardamom and tonka bean currently only hint at what the Salzberg will be capable of with a few years of bottle maturity.

On the palate, too, it is currently more of a promise than a true greatness. Without a doubt, it needs several years in the bottle to blossom into full stature. Full of pressure and immense tension, it almost threatens to burst on the palate and tells of extract and concentration with quiet stillness, yet always remains transparent and silky on the palate. The tannins are delicate like low-pile carpet with a mouthfeel like fine sandpaper. They give it its animatingly tart astringency with notes of bitter chocolate. The acidity acts nonchalantly in the background and coordinates the powerful structure on the palate. The carafe is obligatory in the youthful stage, as is the large goblet.