The Wine AdvocateRP 96Reviewed by:Stephan ReinhardtRelease Price:NADrink Date:2028 - 2050The 2022 Monte Nostrum follows the Burg Scharfensteiner and is congruent with this former cru whose name was canceled in 1971 and re-introduced with the 2020, yet it had to change its name due to German impeachment. The name goes back to a document from 1160 that has the Schaufenstein castle named as Castellum Monti, but this name also couldn't be used due to another veto, now from Italy. However, Monte Nostrum is the legally accepted name now, and it's a good complement to the prestigious Monte Vacano from a special plot in the Gräfenberg.
The Monte Nostrum Riesling is sourced from the upper part of the Turmberg, so on pure phyllite slate, and will be sold exclusively via negociants in Bordeaux for at least 69 euros starting in September 2024. The 2022 opens with a pure, refined and coolish, stony/saline and citric bouquet of crushed stones and is remarkably precise. Lean, refined and elegant on the palate but also dense and intense, this is a pure, vibrantly fresh and mineral, savory and seriously structured Riesling from Kiedrich's coolest spot outside the forest. Sharp as a knife, it is an incomparable, very long and even concentrated yet never big or fleshy Rheingau Riesling with no similarity to any other location in the Rheingau but maybe to the Saar (Wiltingen) or, as Weil says, Breuer's Nonnenberg in term of its quiet flow. It was bottled in mid-August this year with only two grams per liter of residual sugar. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in August 2023.
"We started the year 2022 with a very warm winter," recalls Wilhelm Weil, then immediately he adds that the replenishment of water reserves over the winter precipitation was to become "essential for the survival" of one or two vineyards. This is because the summer of 2022 was characterized by high temperatures and very low rainfall during the summer.

Budbreak on April 20 was still in line with the long-term average, but the start of flowering in the first days of June was already seven days ahead of the long-term average because Mother Nature sent plenty of sunshine and warmth in May.
However, due to the increasing drought and southern European heat, the vineyards then increasingly found their natural brake on assimilation, so that the lead in vineyard development was not significantly extended over the summer.
Nevertheless, the start of ripening was nine days ahead of the average, and the grape harvest even started 10 days earlier than normal on September 20.
"In times of global warming, this natural brake on assimilation due to a certain lack of water is becoming increasingly important for the quality of the grapes and therefore the wines," says Weil. It is important to find a balance in water management that allows the vines to become thirsty but not die of thirst. The Kiedrich Hill is a good place for this, with its natural conditions, for example, by pushing water from the forest into the vineyards, even in the increasingly dry and hot years. In mid-September last year, the grapes not only "looked excellent," but "they also tasted great," reports Weil.
But then came the heavy rain, which the Kiedrich Hill absorbed thanks to the excellent drainage properties of the phyllite subsoil. "Thanks to the good water drainage and the excellent work of our team over the summer [removing] loose grapes and [creating] well-aerated vineyards, we were able to keep our grapes absolutely healthy and lead them to good physiological ripeness with appropriate hanging time on the vine," Weil sums up. "We were then able to harvest magnificent, sweet late and Auslese wines. Last but not least, in late October, we were even able to select the longed-for raisins in the vineyard, so we once again have all quality levels, including Trockenbeerenauslese, in the cellar, albeit only in very small quantities, now for the 34th year in a row."
In summer this year, Weil was very enthusiastic about the wines, which he thinks are better and longer-lived than anything else he has bottled so far. "Our children will enjoy the 2022s for a long time to come," he believes.
However, I was not quite as exuberant, even though I really like the slender, racy and delicately fruity style of the 2022 Rieslings, but it remains to be seen whether the vintage will surpass all previous vintages. Given the challenges of the vintage, however, Weil's 2022s exceed expectations, so the king of the Kiedrich mountain can continue to calmly look down on his kingdom, which is likely to be ruled by his children in the not too distant future.
Published: Dec 29, 2023
