2019 Meyer-Fonné Riesling Grand Cru Wineck-Schlossberg
VARIETAL: Riesling
REGION: Alsace, FR
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: Félix Meyer
This is the Grand Cru vineyard of Katzenthal, the home of Meyer-Fonne - it is an important vineyard both emotionally and historically for the estate. Wineck-Schlossberg is a south facing vineyard which is made up of a crumbly granite known as ‘de Turckheim’. This is a very pure and elegant expression of Riesling with a floral and spicy edge. Like all of Felix’s wines it has an amazing balance of weight, texture and mineral intensity which makes it complex, enticing and enthralling to drink. This doesn't have the density of some of the other Grand Cru he makes, it is the most elegant.
"Our vineyards are now mostly located on the hillsides, so the historic part of the Alsatian vineyards", says Félix. Only about 25% of the current holdings of 14 hectares of vines are located in the valley floor and are exclusively planted with either Pinot Blanc or Auxerrois. All the noble grape varieties, however, are cultivated in historic vineyards in the hillsides, which give predominantly dry and nervy, terroir-driven wines full of expression and mineral tension. There are no less than five Grand Cru vineyards—Kaefferkopf, Wineck-Schlossberg, Sporen, Furstentum and Schoenenbourg—that are organically farmed and cultivated and they all give deep, racy and firmly structured wines that intermix ripe fruit flavors and seductive textures with a vital and mineral backbone.
The winemaking is very traditional here, since most of the investments have been made in the low-yielding vineyards, with top old-vines parcels in the best sites, high density plantings and the vitalization of the soils. No synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides are used at all. The fermentation of the naturally cleared musts takes place with native yeasts in either stainless steel or traditional oak, and after racking, the wines are kept on the lees until May (Alsace AOC) and respectively September (single vineyards) before bottling.