Riesling Kappelweg Vendanges Tardives
⏳ wine.drinking_window
Typically best enjoyed 10 to 30 years from the vintage release.
🍽️ wine.food_pairings
glazed pork belly, spicy Thai curry, aged Munster cheese
✨ wine.spec_sheet
Hailing from the historic Kappelweg lieu-dit—whose name translates to the 'path of the chapel'—this late-harvest Riesling is a masterclass in Alsatian patience and terroir. The Kappelweg vineyard is characterized by its heavy, clay-marl and limestone soils, which impart a profound structural power and a distinct, stony minerality to the grapes. Domaine Rolly Gassmann allows the grapes to hang on the vine long into the autumn, encouraging the development of noble rot and concentrating the natural sugars. In accordance with the estate's traditionalist philosophy, the wine undergoes a slow fermentation with indigenous yeasts and is aged for years in their massive cellars before release. The resulting Vendanges Tardives style is a sublime tension between luscious, honeyed sweetness and a searing, vibrant acidity, unfolding complex layers of candied citrus, petrol, ginger, and white flowers.
🍾 wine.about_producer
Established in 1967 through the union of two historic winemaking families with roots in Rorschwihr dating back to 1611 and 1676, Domaine Rolly Gassmann is a benchmark of Alsatian viticulture. Located in the picturesque village of Rorschwihr, Alsace, France, the estate is guided by Pierre Gassmann, who maintains a steadfast commitment to biodynamic principles and meticulous hand-harvesting. The domaine is globally revered for its patient approach to winemaking, utilizing massive cellar capacities to age wines for years—sometimes decades—before commercial release. This philosophy yields remarkably complex, texturally rich white wines, most notably their late-harvest Vendanges Tardives and S lection de Grains Nobles, as well as terroir-specific expressions of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris from prized parcels like Kappelweg, Silberberg, and Oberer Weingarten.