Weedenborn – Chardonnay Réserve

The Weedenborn Chardonnay Réserve 2020 from Gesine Roll of Weingut Weedenborn in Monzernheim, Rheinhessen, is a magnificent German Chardonnay. With her Chardonnay Réserve, Gesine Roll impressively demonstrates what can be achieved with this grape variety if one knows how to handle it. For this, Gesine Roll selects the most beautiful and best grapes from the most valuable sites and oldest Chardonnay vineyards, the so-called Golden Cut. Spontaneously fermented, she aged it for 18 months on its full lees in classic French oak barriques, which further concentrates it. Bottled unfiltered, it reveals a Burgundian expression of Chardonnay: elegant and mineral with a delicate woody spice and good aging potential. Straw yellow in the glass, it offers aromas of yellow fruits: quince, yellow peach, and exotic passion fruit. Delicate wood and vanilla notes, pear, biscuit, and a beautiful, chalky minerality with ethereal mint reflect the cool elegance of this wine on the palate.

Chardonnay – Gesine's Number 2

Chardonnay is an internationally popular grape variety. In the global ranking of grape varieties, it confidently holds the 7th position. The Chardonnay grape variety has a great advantage: it is flexible and adaptable, or as it is called in the wine world: it expresses its terroir. It grows in the north as well as in the south, coping with hot summers, although less well than with cool, rainy years. It grows on a wide variety of soils, but it likes limestone, such as that found around Weingut Weedenborn in Monzernheim.

After Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay is the number 2 grape variety in Gesine Roll's list of favorite grapes. Gesine Roll harvests the Chardonnay grapes early enough, processes them carefully and gently, allows the grapes to ferment spontaneously, puts a portion through malolactic fermentation, and gives the must plenty of time to mature on the lees. She skillfully plays with used barrels of different sizes. This results in a high-quality, cool wine with good structure and great development potential.

“Here, too, minerality is central. Delicate yellow fruit, refined floral components, tart elderflower – this could well be a great Burgundy with its proverbial mineral depth. Juicy, flavorful palate, well-dosed, perfectly integrated barrique, fine breed, the wine glides like a feather over the tongue, but is laden with heavenly aromas; noble simplicity lends additional charm, sublime, varied finish,” describes Max Gerstl of Gerstl Weinselektionen about this wine from Weingut Weedenborn.

Chardonnay Réserve – A Wine and Its Values

• 13% vol. alcohol content
• 1.2 g/l residual sugar
• 6.8 g/l acidity
• 94 points James Suckling
• 94 points Robert Parker