Altenberg Riesling Alte Reben GG
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2040
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted pork belly, seared scallops, mildly spiced Asian cuisine
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the breathtakingly steep slopes of the Kanzemer Altenberg, where gradients reach up to 90 percent, this Grosses Gewächs (GG) represents the pinnacle of Saar Riesling. The vineyard's iron-rich red slate soils impart a distinctively smoky, exotic minerality to the wine. Crafted from 'Alte Reben'—ancient, self-rooted vines that have clung to these sheer cliffs for up to a century—this wine pays homage to the late 19th-century golden era when Saar wines commanded higher prices than the finest Bordeaux crus. Fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts in traditional, neutral oak fuder casks, it showcases a majestic tension between opulent stone fruit flavors, wild herbal notes, and a crystalline, vibrating acidity.
🍾 About the Producer
Perched dramatically above the Saar River in Wiltingen, Weingut Van Volxem is one of Germany's most heralded historic wine estates. Originating as a Roman villa complex with viticulture traced back to the 3rd century, the property operated as a Jesuit monastery winery established in 1743 before being acquired post-secularization by Brussels brewer Gustav van Volxem. In late 1999, Roman Niewodniczanski acquired the estate and orchestrated an ambitious renaissance, revitalizing storied steep-slope vineyards and inaugurating a state-of-the-art gravity-fed winery atop the Wiltinger Schlossberg. Managing approximately 85 hectares on Devonian slate across top-tier VDP.Grosse Lage sites—such as Scharzhofberger, Wiltinger Gottesfuß, Volz, and Ockfener Bockstein—the estate works predominantly with old, ungrafted Riesling vines. Practicing sustainable, non-interventional viticulture, cellar master Dominik Völk champions spontaneous wild-yeast fermentations and extended aging in neutral oak and stainless steel. Van Volxem produces intensely mineral, low-alcohol, dry-leaning Rieslings and refined sparkling Sekts that revive the aristocratic, turn-of-the-century prestige of traditional Saar wines.
🍇 Grapes
Riesling
🍷 ABV
12-13%