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Weingut Weedenborn

Gesine Roll took over her parental estate in 2008 after training with Bassermann-Jordan in the Pfalz and Vergelegen in South Africa and taking a business degree. Unlike most Rheinhessen estates, she is not famous for Riesling but for Sauvignon Blanc and, to a lesser degree, Chardonnay. She currently farms 25 hectares, of which 15 are Sauvignon Blanc on the Tertiary limestone soils of Westhofen and Monzernheim, with Chardonnay and Pinot varieties in the deeper soils of Bechtheim. She has just three hectares of Riesling. Chardonnay is her second most important variety. Her family had been early adopters of international varieties, planting Chardonnay as soon as it was permitted in Rheinhessen in 1992. She relates that 20 years ago, many estates planted Sauvignon Blancs to offer it as “a varietal wine, a tidy little earner.” But she wanted to engage with and take the variety seriously and now sees it as a “modern German (or Rheinhessen) classic.” Roll deliberately focused on Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay as a point of difference in the Riesling-dominated Wonnegau. The style Roll has pursued, she says, “evolved on its own. Simply because I did not know these other Sauvignon Blancs in the world, it was almost an imaginary idea, led by good examples of Riesling and Chardonnay, to make a ripe but not overripe, precise, light wine with structure from Sauvignon Blanc.” Her Sauvignon Blancs do not need to fear any international comparison. On the contrary: the limestone soils, the climate (Monzernheim enjoys the coolness and ventilation that comes with elevation – a distinct advantage in 2022), and her expert use of oak bring forth astonishing complexity. Construction is underway, too: a new press house, a new store for machinery and more wine storage for library releases. The cellar remains where it always was and must will travel by gravity into the old cellar. Once construction is concluded, she will start conversion to organic farming and notes that the past 20 years have seen no herbicides at all.

From 2022 Rheinhessen & Nahe: Rain in the Nick of Time (Sep 2023) by Anne Krebiehl MW

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2022 Chardonnay

Color: White

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