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Mühlberg 5
65399 Kiedrich / Rheingau
Germany
Driving with a navigation system via Mühlweg

T: +49 (0)6123 2308
F: +49 (0)6123 1546

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The winery is open for you:

Monday to Friday 8 AM - 5.30 PM
Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM
Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM

 

 

 
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2021

A classic cool climate vintage

that will reward patience for many, many years to come

 

 

It’s no secret that the 2021 vintage presented significant challenges to winemakers - in Germany and abroad.

Reports poured in from all corners of late frosts in spring, heavy rains in spring and summer, and then catastrophic flooding, hail and windstorms throughout.

On top of those dire problems, many regions faced the grim threat of both downy and powdery mildew in summer, leading to early onset rot that often left only a brief window in autumn to harvest fully ripe grapes.

And in the Rheingau?

While we were spared the extreme weather conditions mentioned above, excessive rain remained a concern throughout spring and summer. This necessitated an unusually intensive set of vineyard management measures.

At Weingut Robert Weil, we supplemented our normal practices to secure good air circulation in the vineyards with additional canopy thinning, cluster thinning and green harvest.

Thanks to the outstanding drainage properties of the phyllite soils on the Kiedricher Berg, our vines avoided ‘wet feet.’

Our own hard manual labor on the Kiedricher Berg was further aided by the famous winds of the Taunus, which run downhill into the Rhine valley and perpetually help keep the vineyards dry. And finally the good September weather also helped deliver outstanding physiological ripeness in the grapes.

Our harvest of the fruit for base wines for the sparkling Sekt began in the final days of September, with the main harvest withheld until early October.

It was a year of very good nutritional supply and growth for the grapes and average harvest volumes that didn’t overtax the vines; we were pleased with the strong extract levels and concentration of the resulting wines.

Our tireless work in the vineyards and the extreme adaptability of the Kiedricher Berg itself (outstanding water drainage in wet years, strong water replenishment from the forest above in dry ones) ultimately delivered not just physiological ripeness, but also excellent health in the fruit at harvest.

By late September/early October, we found that the grapes had reached their perfect taste profile, a crucial factor in the quality of the wine that will eventually be produced from them.

Starting in mid-October, we began bringing in fantastic crops of golden grapes from our Erste and Grosse Lagen: ideally ripe and healthy. Expectations are through the roof!

Late October and November brought the coveted chance to pick a selection of shriveled grapes in the vineyard. While quantities are minute, we are once again blessed to have brought in all levels of quality, including a Trockenbeerenauslese, for the 33rd year in a row.