Robert Weil

“A picture of a dry Riesling”: The 2023 Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs
Robert Weil

The wait is over. As you may know, the Rheingau chapter of the VDP has mandated that its top dry wines may only be released on, or after, the first of September two years after harvest. With that day finally here, the 2023 Kiedrich Gräfenberg GG is at last available, an opportunity not to be missed if you didn’t buy on pre-release.


Weil’s Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs is simply a stunning dry Riesling from a note-perfect vintage. A diamond. Robert Weil himself considers it one for the finest wines he has bottled, which it says all, really.


Twenty-twenty-three was a best-of-both-worlds kind of year for this address. It’s a vintage where ripe and fleshy fruit is perfectly counterbalanced by visceral, cool-climate energy and mouthwatering structure—low pHs and high tartaric were also a feature of the year. You could say Weil’s 2023s are a distillation of the best elements of 2021 and 2022. And they only become finer, more luminous and overtly mineral as you scale the heights of the remarkable eye-of-the-needle purity and mineral steel of the Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs.


Bottled at just 12.5%, the 2023 release is an outrageously exciting wine that will blow drinkers away for decades to come: the reviews below can fill in the details. We’re sure our wine-loving descendants will look back and say that we were lucky to live in an era when somebody could still purchase a wine of this quality for half the price of a Premier Cru white Burgundy! 

The Wines

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs Riesling 2023
Added

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs Riesling 2023

The vineyard of Kiedrich Gräfenberg—or ‘hill of the counts’—has been used to designate Robert Weil’s finest wines since the site was officially classified as ‘Weinlage 1 Klasse’ in 1867. Home to Weil’s oldest vines (up to 80 years of age), with the majority on their own rootstock, it makes perfect sense that Wilhelm Weil decided that it was only from this site that his Grosses Gewächs would derive (even though he could release two GGs from his vineyards).

Weil aims to replicate the style, quality and elegance of the full-bodied dry wines produced in the Rheingau a century ago when the region’s finest Rieslings were the most expensive wines in the world. Despite the high quality of the Turmberg and Klosterberg, this is clearly on another level. The greater loess and loam also impart a distinguishing textural dimension. It’s finer, even more complete and subtly powerful—a wine of obvious Grand Cru class. This year, the GG was raised for 10 months (instead of 12) on lees in large, neutral oak Doppelstückfass (large Stockinger casks). When you think of what we are paying for top-notch Grand Cru white Burgundy, Weil’s remains an absolute bargain, matching the best for class and quality. Few (if any!) could match it for longevity.

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Grosses Gewächs Riesling 2023
Added
Robert Weil Rheingau Riesling Trocken 2023
Added

Robert Weil Rheingau Riesling Trocken 2023

The entry-level Trocken is a blend from Weil’s high-altitude sites dotted around the village of Kiedrich. These vineyards include the brilliantly named Sandgrub vineyard and a good dollop from Wasseros, a steep, southwest-facing vineyard that abuts the Gräfenberg vines. Then, there is a smaller addition from elevated sites in Hallgarten. The soils of these sites are typically composed of stony, fragmented phyllite interlaced with loess and loam. At this level, the wine is vinified in stainless steel with roughly 5% fermented in large oak. Just outstanding for the level. 

Robert Weil Rheingau Riesling Trocken 2023
Added
Robert Weil Kiedricher Riesling Trocken 2023
Added

Robert Weil Kiedricher Riesling Trocken 2023

Weil’s village Riesling is a blend of first-picked parcels from the classified hillside estate sites of Klosterberg, Turmberg and Gräfenberg, as well as a measure of Wasseros fruit. As you would expect from such terroir, it is a step up from the entry wine, with more texture and power and considerably rockier mineral intensity. Accordingly, one-third of the wine is raised in large Stockinger Doppelstückfass (wooden cask) for six months.
Robert Weil Kiedricher Riesling Trocken 2023
Added
Robert Weil Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken 2023
Added

Robert Weil Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken 2023

Similarly to Klosterberg, the Turmberg vines sit in the 30- to 50-year-old range. The name Turmberg—or ‘tower hill’—derives from the ruins of the last surviving tower of the former castle, Burg Scharfenstein (12th century), positioned dramatically atop the vineyard. The infamous German wine law of 1971 made this site part of the neighbouring Gräfenberg. In 2005, Weil succeeded in having this 3.8-hectare monopole reinstated as an individual classified site in the vineyard register (historically, it had been a separate vineyard, reflecting the unique terroir).

In Germany’s 2024 classification re-evaluation tastings, we hear that Turmberg outshone many of the famous GGs, so you are effectively getting GG quality for the price of a 1er Cru. The pure, rocky slate soils here give the most linear, coiled wine in the lineup. Riesling lovers, saddle up!

Robert Weil Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken 2023
Added
Robert Weil Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Trocken 2023
Added

Robert Weil Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Trocken 2023

The vines on this steep, four-hectare vineyard are between 40 and 60 years old. At up to 300 metres, this is the highest of Weil’s three hillside sites, yet thanks to its southern aspect and deeper, iron-rich, weathered slate soils, it also produces the most opulent and seductive of these wines (when young). The Weil team often use the term ‘baroque’ when describing wines from Klosterberg in reference to the lift and generosity. Yes, there is plenty of slate, but also gneiss, which brings out more fruit and floral notes. Like all of Weil’s single-site ’23s, this was raised entirely in Doppelstückfass and aged on full lees for 10 months before bottling. While the Klosterberg shares some similarities in character with the Kiedricher wine, you always get a kick up in intensity, complexity and drive at the finish.

Robert Weil Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Trocken 2023
Added
Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese 2023
Sold Out
Added

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese 2023

Weil is widely considered one of the true greats of the sweeter Prädikat styles. Key to this estate’s success with these wines is that the mountainous, rocky setting of the Kiedricher Berg vineyards allows for a perfect balance between natural sweetness, mouthwatering freshness and pungent, intense minerality. Unlike the great sweet wines of France, the style of these wines is not reliant on noble rot. Indeed, the formation of botrytis is uncommon on the steep, aerated slopes of Kiedrich. The 2023 finished at 67 g/L of residual sugar and 10 g/L of acidity.

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese 2023
Sold Out
Added

“Wilhelm Weil presented a stunning 2023 vintage–hair-raising, even. The dry Rieslings are utterly clear and brilliant while brimming with fruit. The off-dry and sweet wines have electric, spectacular acidity, giving them even more definition than usual, heightening every nuance of flavor and assuring longevity.”Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous

Other Recent Releases

  • Domaine Chermette
    Domaine Chermette
    We had a terrific introduction to Beaujolais’ 2023 vintage earlier this year. Visiting ...
    We had a terrific introduction to Beaujolais’ 2023 vintage earlier this year. Visiting our growers, and many others, it was clear that most produce...

    Read more

  • Zalto
    Zalto
    Zalto needs little introduction: its feather-light, hand-blown stemware has long been t...
    Zalto needs little introduction: its feather-light, hand-blown stemware has long been the gold-standard for wine lovers and professionals around th...

    Read more

  • Château Closiot
    Château Closiot
    For some it may come as a surprise that Burgundy’s enfant terrible—the winemaker behind...
    For some it may come as a surprise that Burgundy’s enfant terrible—the winemaker behind one of the Mâconnais’ greatest Domaines—now makes wine in B...

    Read more

  • Garagiste
    Garagiste
    It’s a biting winter’s afternoon in the Mornington. But standing on a windswept hill, p...
    It’s a biting winter’s afternoon in the Mornington. But standing on a windswept hill, pointing at the red clay soils of the Merricks vineyard, Barn...

    Read more

  • Domaine Guiberteau
    Domaine Guiberteau
    The great domaines never stand still, and Domaine Guiberteau is no different. Romain’s ...
    The great domaines never stand still, and Domaine Guiberteau is no different. Romain’s daughter, Camille, has recently joined the Domaine with part...

    Read more

  • Bannockburn Vineyards
    Bannockburn Vineyards
    Stuart Hooper’s vision for Bannockburn was simple: make Burgundy inspired wines with a ...
    Stuart Hooper’s vision for Bannockburn was simple: make Burgundy inspired wines with a distinctly Australian identity. Today, Chardonnay and Pinot ...

    Read more

  • Lambert Wines
    Lambert Wines
    Exciting times are these for Luke Lambert and Rosalind Hall. Earlier this year the pair...
    Exciting times are these for Luke Lambert and Rosalind Hall. Earlier this year the pair crushed their first Nebbiolo from the family’s young vineya...

    Read more

  • Bodegas Mengoba
    Bodegas Mengoba
    Alice Feiring’s colourful quote above was penned towards the start of Grégory Pérez’s B...
    Alice Feiring’s colourful quote above was penned towards the start of Grégory Pérez’s Bierzo adventure. We’re now two decades into his Mengoba proj...

    Read more

View All Offers

More Content

Read more about this producer
Welcome