2022 Riesling Hochheimer Hölle Auslese

Gunter Künstler has run his parental estate since 1992, after working alongside his father Franz since 1988. Franz Künstler founded the estate in 1965. However, the family tradition goes back to Unter-Tannowitz in Southern Moravia, today in the Czech Republic, where the family had made wine from 1648 to 1945. Franz Künstler came as a post-war refugee to the Rheingau and built this estate. His quality-obsessed son Gunter and his wife Monika now preside over 65 hectares that span the length of the Rheingau – from Hochheim in the east where the winery is located to Assmannshausen in the west. Künstler kept adding sites, first branching out from Hochheim to Rüdesheim in 2011, Assmannshausen in 2014 but also adding Middle Rheingau like the monopole of Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg and parcels in the Erbacher Marcobrunn in 2021. His plantings are 79% Riesling, 14% Pinot Noir, 3% Chardonnay, 2% Sauvignon Blanc followed by Alvarinho, Merlot and Pinot Blanc and not to forget some Grüner Veltliner planted in honor of his father in 2010. In another person’s hands all this would seem too much, but Künstler is one of those restless minds and souls who keep looking for new challenges. When a sports accident prevented this former athlete from exercising during the Covid pandemic, he completed the WSET Diploma instead, training mind and palate rather than body. Both hand and machine harvest are employed, the latter only after a manual pre-harvest discarding all rotten fruit. The grapes are de-stemmed and pressed either in a basket or pneumatic press – while his Coquard press is used not only for Sekt but also for his red wines and GGs. Juice is then sedimented for 48-60 hours and fermented in both steel and wood. Botrytis is strictly avoided for the dry wines. During my visit, I tasted the 2022 Rieslings from the Erste Lagen and the 2021 GGs, his other white wine varieties and the Pinot Noirs from 2019, 2020 and 2021. Künstler’s white wines used to be known for their rounded richness and generosity, now they are tighter, tauter, more precise and much finer, despite the richer soils of Hochheim, their power is now channeled into far more elegance. Künstler’s “triumvirate” of Rüdesheim sites, i.e. Berg Rottland, Schlossberg and Roseneck are stony marvels – especially in the grandiose 2021 vintage. His Pinot Noir ambition is equally evident – but better in cooler years. The contrast between the rocky and calcareous soils in Assmannshausen and Hochheim, respectively, is fascinating, the latter ripening around two weeks before Assmannshausen.