Schweigen Kalkmergel Riesling Spatlese
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2030
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Thai green curry, glazed roast pork belly, or artisanal blue cheese.
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the historic border town of Schweigen-Rechtenbach, this wine is a testament to a highly unusual geographical quirk: Weingut Bernhart's vineyards seamlessly cross the German border into Alsace, France, meaning these grapes are often grown on French soil but vinified under German tradition. The 'Kalkmergel' designation highlights the ancient limestone marl soils of the region, which impart a profound structural minerality and vibrant energy to the Riesling grape. Crafted as a Spätlese (late harvest), this wine captures the generous sun of the southern Pfalz, balancing luscious stone fruit flavors of peach and apricot with a piercing, salty mineral backbone and a beautifully integrated, refreshing acidity.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Bernhart is situated in Schweigen-Rechtenbach along the southernmost fringe of the Pfalz, right at the French frontier near the historic Deutsches Weintor. While the family's agricultural roots date back centuries, estate bottling commenced under Willi and Wilma Bernhart in 1971, followed by their accession to the VDP in 2004 and formal organic certification in 2012. Today led by Gerd and Sabine Bernhart, the estate commands a singular cross-border terroir: approximately two-thirds of its roughly 20 hectares of vineyards are technically situated on French soil in Alsace, governed by special bilateral treaties that allow the wines to bear German designations. The viticultural backbone rests on dense, fossil-rich limestone, calcareous marl, and clay deposits across benchmark cru plots such as the Schweigener Sonnenberg. Winemaking emphasizes spontaneous fermentation, lees contact, and judicious wood aging, generating deeply structured, mineral-driven white and red expressions epitomized by their Kalkmergel and Grosses Gewächs bottlings.
🍇 Grapes
Riesling