Urziger Wurzgarten Unterst Pichter Riesling Reserve GG
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2042
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Southeast Asian cuisine, roasted duck or pork belly, and aged Alpine cheeses like Comte
✨ Technical Specifications
The Urziger Wurzgarten, or 'spice garden of Urzig,' is one of the Mosel's most iconic vineyards, famous for its steep, amphitheater-like slopes of red volcanic soil and slate. This unique terroir imparts a distinctly exotic, spicy character to the Riesling grapes grown here. Within this grand cru site lies the historic 'Unterst Pichter' parcel, home to ancient, ungrafted vines situated close to the river. For this Reserve Grosses Gewachs (GG), winemaker Ernst Loosen revives traditional cellar practices: the wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts in traditional 1,000-liter oak Fuder casks, followed by an extraordinary 24 months of aging on the full lees. This extended maturation gives the dry Riesling a remarkably creamy texture, structural density, and a complex interplay of tropical fruit, herbal spice, and vibrant minerality.
🍾 About the Producer
The historic Dr. Loosen estate has been in the Loosen family for over two centuries, situated along the dramatic, slate-lined slopes of the Middle Mosel in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. Since taking over management in 1988, Ernst Loosen has revitalized the winery by strictly focusing on low yields, meticulous vineyard stewardship, and minimal intervention in the cellar. The estate is blessed with extraordinarily old, ungrafted Riesling vines in legendary Grand Cru (Grosse Lage) vineyards such as Erdener Prälat, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, and Bernkasteler Lay. Dr. Loosen is globally celebrated for producing pure, expressive, and age-worthy Rieslings that range from vibrant dry bottlings to lusciously complex, mineral-laced Prädikat and dessert wines.