2022 Pündericher Marienburg Grosses Gewächs Fahrlay

Rita Buss and Clemens Busch have farmed their vines in Pünderich organically since 1985, which makes them absolute pioneers. The Busches trialed biodynamic methods until they achieved certification in 2007. Their son Johannes Busch joined the estate in 2011 while still at university but always worked alongside at home. Upon graduation, he joined fully and is now responsible for viticulture and harvest logistics. Clemens makes the wine and represents the estate for sales, and Rita is the logistical mastermind for labeling, stock-keeping and administration. Most of their 18 hectares are in the Marienburg vineyard, across the river from their house. There is no desire to grow the estate further. This site is long and heterogeneous, with changing slates, from blue slate (Fahrlay) to grey slate (Falkenlay) to red slate (Rothenpfad) over the course of 700 meters. Busch recultivated parts of the latter after it had lain fallow for years. Generally, grapes are crushed and only receive a short maceration of four to eight hours, depending on quality and ripeness. The two unsulfured wines macerate for two days. After pressing, the juice is sedimented and transferred to Fuder for spontaneous fermentation. The residually sweet wines then stay on gross lees until the following May, and the dry wines until summer. The Buschs have developed a very expressive, salty, stone- and slate-driven style of their dry wines, which fascinate with their site expression. The wines are bold and have a textural streak from yeast but remain absolutely elegant. The 2022 harvest started in early October and took four and a half weeks, finishing in early November. Rita Buss credited the old vines with the relative freshness of 2022, which surprised them. She also noted that most wines likely went through malolactic conversion, but since there was so little malic acid in 2022, this had only a minor effect. According to Buss, the old vines are also the reason for the balanced style of the 2022s: “You cannot taste the heat in the wines,” she said. During my visit, I tasted the 2022 Rieslings, plus late releases from 2021, namely the Marienburg Felsterrasse and Marienburg Raffes, and the GG Reserves from Fahrlay and Rothenberg 2020.