People |
Johannes Hasselbach, since 2016
Focus |
Rieslings of the Roter Hang from a 135 year old historical estate, infused with a youthful exuberance. No longer pushing for ripeness, you can expect wine made in the vineyards, not the cellar, with lower sugar and alcohol levels with a tighter structure, just oozing with minerality.
Country |
Germany
Region |
Rheinhessen
Village |
Nackenheim
Climate |
Cool Continental, although things are quickling heating up in the Rheinhessen
Vineyards |
24 hectares across the two villages of Nackeheim and Nierstein
- Rothenberg: The crown jewel of the family estate, owning 65% of it. It’s one of the top Grosse Lage (Grand Cru) sites along the 5 km long stretch of the Roter Hang. This iron rich cliff along the Rhein river is known for spicy, savory, long lived wines. Their parcels have vines up to 40 years old.
- Pettenthal: finer soil than Rothenberg, pebbly with broken rocks and less geological compression. Wines tend to show a slightly finer structure, are more filigreed and tense.
- Hipping: The smallest of the Gunderloch holdings from a super steep site.
Grape Varieties |
Riesling. Plus some pinot blanc, pinot gris, silvaner, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir for the German market.
Farming |
Practicing organic
- Started certification process in 2022
- Super low yields harvested, especially for the Rheinhessen
Cellar Work |
Moving towards low intervention
- GG’s are macerated for a few days then quickly pressed into barrel
- There is no clarification of the must
- Fermentations start spontaneously
- Finished to dryness
About the winery |
The Rheinhessen is Germany's largest wine region and encompasses both the majority of its bulk wine production AND its very finest dry wines, like "The German Montrachet" of Keller.
Gunderloch is both one of its most important historically, being a top estate for 135 years, and heading sure shot into the 21st century under the leadership of forward thinking Johannes Hasselbach. The wines today may be the best they’ve ever been. He's pulled the wines into the modern era, by pulling back all the unnecessary “make-up” of the last 50 years. Wines are made in the vineyards, farming is now organic, the cellar is a place for allowing time to finish the wines, not dress them up.
His goals are lofty, from reducing residual sugar and alcohol, quite a feat in the new age of climate change, to adding complexity with spontaneous fermentation. He's moving away from purely reductive techniques by incorporating used barrels with longer maturation and playing with skin contact.
Of course it helps to have a host of desirable vineyard sites with which to work from including "Roter Hang", Rheinhessen's notorious red slope, and its three most important Grand Cru sites: Rothenberg, Pettenthal and Hipping.
In the hands of Johannes these sites are able to produce wines that have gained notoriety for their exceptional balance, grace, and filigreed nuance.
What do the wines taste like?
They tend to show a darker side of Riesling, probably thanks to the iron rich soils. Darker fruits, herbs, spices, are overlaid onto the typical Riesling aromas of yellow and citrus fruits, salty, stony minerality with some floral and sometimes tea notes.
The structure is about power and density, but pulled back from the edge of being baroque or over ripe. Johannes and put a lot of work into using oxygen instead of reductive practices to coax out a more savory side of these wines.
If you haven’t had Gunderloch in a while, it's time to give them another chance, and if you’ve never had Gunderloch then now is the time.