Von Winning, Ruppertsberger Nussbien, Riesling 2021

A stunner of a wine, this single-vineyard Premier Cru Riesling is possibly the best-value wine that we have found in the extensive range from Von Winning.

A spicy nose with notes of pepper and juniper berries, fruit flavours of apple and cucumber maintain a real freshness and really pull you into the glass. The freshness continues to the palate, which has more notes of juniper, salinity, density and succulent fruit flavours that sit with a firmness and presence that is significant and really, really delicious.

Made from grapes grown to the south of the famous village of Rupertsberg, the vineyard of Nussbien sits just beyond the Grand Cru site of Reiterpfad in the tract of land that runs to the ancient Pfalz forests.

According to our friend in the winery, Andreas, this wine is "reminiscent of a walk through the forest in the late summer". We haven't taken that walk just yet, but we reckon we'll get there one day. Until then, we have this...

This is a stunning Riesling from one of The Allotment's favourite wineries. Made from grapes that are grown in the village of Deidesheim where the Von Winning winery is located, it is intense, fresh, elegant, mineral, mouthwatering and completely joyous as a glass of wine. 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 this wine 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.