Hochheimer Kirchenstuck Riesling TBA
⏳ Drinking Window
2030 - 2080
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheese, foie gras, fruit-based desserts
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the legendary Hochheimer Kirchenstück—the 'church plot' nestled around the historic church of St. Peter and Paul—this Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) represents the pinnacle of Rheingau noble sweet winemaking. The vineyard's proximity to the Main river creates a unique microclimate where autumn morning mists encourage the development of Botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. Weingut Künstler hand-harvests these shriveled, honeyed berries individually in multiple meticulous passes through the vineyard. The resulting wine is a nectar of extraordinary concentration, where intense, luscious sweetness is perfectly counterbalanced by the vibrant, mineral-driven acidity characteristic of Hochheim's deep clay-loess and calcareous soils.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Künstler traces an illustrious family winemaking lineage to 1648 in southern Moravia, before Franz Künstler re-established the estate in Hochheim am Main in 1965 following post-war expulsion. Gunter Künstler assumed direction in 1992, elevating the domaine into one of Germany's preeminent dry Riesling benchmarks and earning VDP membership in 1994. Spanning approximately 50 hectares, Künstler's vineyard portfolio centers on Hochheim's warm eastern Rheingau mesoclimate, featuring loess, loam, and mineral-dense limestone marl sloping down to the Main River, complemented by holdings in Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen. Viticulture is practiced under certified Fair'n Green sustainable standards, marked by meticulous canopy management, low yields, and strict selective hand-harvesting. Cellar work emphasizes slow, gentle pressing and extended lees maturation in traditional large neutral oak casks and stainless steel, capturing formidable textural richness alongside crystalline acidity. The estate is celebrated for power-driven, long-lived VDP.Große Gewächse from legendary sites including Hochheimer Hölle, Hochheimer Kirchenstück, and Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder.
🍇 Grapes
Riesling