Clemens Busch Vom Grauen Schiefer Riesling 2016 VINOUS SOLUTIONS

The Busch family have lived in and around Pünderich for many hundreds of years dating back to feudal times when the modern day vineyards were mixed among subsistence crops. Clemens and Rita still live in the family home on the banks of the Mosel, constructed of stone and timber in 1663.

Today Clemens, Rita and eldest son Florian, farm around 11 hectares of vines, 8 of which are situated on the Marienburg Erste Lage, whose steep slopes rise directly opposite the village. Marienburg is unique in that it contains all three types of Mosel slate – grey, blue and red – within the one classified vineyard. Clemens has also chosen to preserve the historical site names, which have been largely ignored since the 1971 vineyard classification in Germany, by keeping each parcel separate and producing single site bottlings. These represent the varied soil types and microclimates within the Marienburg. There are parcels of very old vines up to 80 years old, as well as newer plantings of old sites abandoned due to the difficulty of the work.

Clemens and Rita have been pioneers of organic viticulture in Germany since 1984, and today they remain at the forefront of ecological viticulture there. Converting to biodynamics in 2004, they are still one of only a handful of estates who work with this philosophy. The quality of these wines can only be achieved by the work that the Busch family do in the vineyard, as opposed to travelling to sell their wines.

Grapes are picked very late, and this, along with the Marienburg’s favourable south facing exposition allows Clemens to make 80% of his production into dry wines. Winemaking is non-interventionist, bordering on natural, with spontaneous ferments in ancient wooden fuder, long lees aging and a low (for Mosel) sulphur regime.

The result of the Busch family’s hard work is the region’s most concentrated, complex and expressive dry Rieslings that range from the basic village trocken through to the Grosses-Gewächs, which are capable of aging for decades, something usually achievable only by sweet wines from the Mosel. The range of tiny cuvées of sweet wines in the pradikat system are also among the Mosel’s benchmarks with scores to match. This is one of Germany’s great wine estates and to top it all off Clemens and Rita are some of the nicest people you will meet in the wine industry. These are benchmark must-try Rieslings!

– Importer Note