Schonfels Riesling GG
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2040
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
roasted pork belly, pan-seared scallops, spicy Thai curry
✨ Technical Specifications
The Schonfels vineyard is one of the Saar's most dramatic and historic sites, characterized by an incredibly steep, south-facing cliff of weathered Devonian slate and quartz. Saved from obscurity by Roman Niewodniczanski, this grand cru (Grosse Lage) site is home to ancient, ungrafted Riesling vines that yield tiny quantities of highly concentrated fruit. The wine is fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts and aged in traditional large oak fuder casks. The resulting Grosses Gewaechs is a masterpiece of tension, balancing a wild, smoky minerality and herbal complexity with a dense, textured core of stone fruit and the Saar's signature electric acidity. It represents a profound tribute to the region's pre-industrial winemaking heritage.
🍾 About the Producer
With viticultural roots reaching back to Roman antiquity and an 18th-century Jesuit monastery, Weingut Van Volxem is a historic estate situated in Wiltingen along the steep slopes of the Saar in Germany's Mosel region. The estate experienced a dramatic renaissance when Roman Niewodniczanski acquired it in 1999, dedicating the estate to restoring the Saar's historic reputation for world-class, dry-style wines crafted with artisanal precision. Working with venerable old vines across premier Grand Cru terroirs—including iconic sites like Scharzhofberger, Wiltinger Gottesfuss, and Kanzemer Altenberg—the winery practices low yields, hand-harvesting, and spontaneous fermentation in traditional wooden casks. Van Volxem is celebrated internationally for its powerful, mineral-etched Riesling Grosses Gewächs, old-vine cuvées, and expressive traditional method sparkling wines.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Riesling
🍷 Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
12-12.5%