Villa Huesgen Schiefer Riesling, Mosel 12%

Description

Villa Huesgen Schiefer Riesling is a white wine from the Mosel Valley.

Adolph Huesgen traces his family’s winemaking heritage in the Mosel back to 1735: he is the ninth generation. The family’s base is a beautiful Art-Nouveau house in Traben-Trarbach designed by Bruno Möhring in the early 20th century at a stage when this town was second in size only to Bordeaux as a wine trading centre. Adolph is intent on bringing this family winery bang up to date with a fully hands-on role in winemaking, simple and elegant presentation, a move to screwcaps for all the wines and a programme of ambitious vineyard acquisition and planting. In fact, he considers himself something of a rebel having no affection for the traditional polysyllabic vineyard names, Gothic fonts or double-headed eagles. Or corks for that matter: a source of greater friction in his domestic market than over here.

Villa Huesgen has 65 hectares of vineyards planted entirely with Riesling and with vines up to seventy years old. The soil is grey slate, vine density is 10,000 vines per hectare and the average yield is 65 hl/ha. Harvest is entirely by hand with a green harvest in early summer. Yeasts are more cultured than indigenous. Fermentation temperatures are between 10 and 12c, and length of fermentation is two to three months.The wines are aged in 100% stainless steel without lees (throwing out the traditional old oak casks was one of Adolph’s first moves).