Von Winning, 'Drache' Estate Riesling 2022

This is the delicious 'house' Riesling from one of our favourite wineries of all time. Their "Dragon" Riesling gets its name from the Dragon who sits in the Von Winning coat of arms. It's made of estate fruit grown in the lower valleys that lie beneath the towns of Diedesheimer and Forst, representing the charm and approachability of these villages, with some of the Von Winning magic give a wine that is truly representative of their estate.

It is fresh, bright and clear as a bell, with delicious fruit flavours balanced by spice, mid-weight body and really impressive depth.

It's one of the phenomenal range of Von Winning Rieslings shipped exclusively for The Allotment. Only available here and in very limited quantities, it is one of the wines that celebrates out relationship with the wineries we work with, to bring you genuinely superb quality at the best possible prices.

Spectacular balance is almost to be expected from Stephan, Andreas and their team, but the extent that the intensity levels run in all directions is utterly sensational and at this price point, wholly unprecedented.

This is dry; but it is rich, smooth, mineral, salty, fresh, citrus-flavoured, juicy, ripe, exotic and layered with engaging texture and an utterly delicious, long, long finish. Like their other wines, this is joyful and uplifting Riesling, but this version from Forst is serious and profound: this is life-affirming wine.

The grapes for this wine come from the village of Forst, to the north of where the winery is based. The importance of this village itself is massive: it is home to some of the most famed vineyards in Germany, which in turn yield some of the most historically prized Rieslings in the world.

Not many other grapes can offer such charm as well as vitality, sunshine and versatility for matching pretty much any food style you can think of.

If you don't know wines from this winery yet, get to!

One of Germany’s longest-running wineries, Weingut von Winning was founded in 1849 and given a new lease of life by Achim Niederberger in 2007. Bringing on board winemaker Stephan Attman and, in time, Andreas Hütwohl, the project was one of clear and brilliant simplicity: the wines from Pfalz were some of the most famous and expensive wines available in the 1850s.

• Why?
• What were they like?
• Why does no one really drink them as much any more?

The answers were fairly obvious:

1. They were amazing
2. They were amazing;
3. They became sweet and mass-produced and lost all sense of terroir and authenticity.

The "New" Von Winning then was a clear plan to resurrect old winemaking techniques using the best grapes and single vineyards available, which, as it turned out, was fairly easy because the best grapes were quite literally on their doorstep. These wines then are fermented in large wooden barrels that are 1,200 litres in capacity and oval in shape, they are a traditional German barrel called Stücke, literally 'pieces'.

These have no oak flavour impact, but allow for the Riesling to be really expressive and lose the twangy metallic texture that can come from some stainless steel only fermented wines. As we've got to know them, the wines that they make from a dizzying number of different vineyard names have offered myriad views of Riesling through the same multi-faceted crystal.

We feel very lucky. If you like the Win Win Riesling, then this is a MUST for you!