Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Tradition

TRADITION RIESLING

The ‘Tradition’ wines are an ode to the winemaking style being employed at Gobelsburg in the early 19th century – specifically the years between 1800 and 1850. This period is characterised  by the era of baroque, where intense aromatisation in vinfication was being practiced.

This concept of Romantic aromatisation inspired the idea of pure nature and the ‘pure’ taste. Winemakers of this time were looking back at an empirical knowledge of nearly 2000 years of winemaking. It was also a period marked in the middle of the century by the upcoming industrialisation boom that led to more and more technology being used in the cellar resulting in a change in the craftsmanship side of winemaking. This development set the stage for modern day winemaking, which focuses on the question of aromas and fruit components.

200 years ago the cellar masters of Gobelsburg had a completely different perspective on wine. Wine was seen in these days much more as an individual. They compared wine with the human being and believed that as we humans have to undergo certain development, also a wine has to do so. And as we have to breathe, also a wine has to breathe in order to accomplish all that.

These considerations have been leading to the common practice to rack the wine from cask to cask to let the wine breath in order to encourage the next step of his development. This was repeated several times and was called the ‘teaching’ of the wine (ger: die Schulung). Here the relation between wine and cellar master can be seen in the same way as the relation between a teacher and his pupil. The task of the cellar master was to identify the potential of the wine and according to that, ‘teach’ him up to his potential. This can be seen in contradiction to our today’s modern imagination that great wine is made in the vineyard and not in the cellar. In our todays mind we belief that the big art of making a great wine is to do ‘nothing’.

The grapes are pressed with a basket press for low sediment content, without further sedimentation the wines are fermented without temperature control in 25 hl Manhartsberg oak casks (double foudre). After the fermentation the wines are racked every 3 to 4 months to let the wine ‘breathe’ on one side, but on the other side to go off the lees. This process lasts for about two years until the wine is ready to be bottled

AWARDS & TASTING NOTES