Albalonga TBA
⏳ Drinking Window
2028 - 2060
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheese, foie gras, apricot tart
✨ Technical Specifications
While Weingut Wittmann is globally renowned for its dry Rieslings, their sweet dessert wines represent an ultra-rare, historic peak of German winemaking. This Trockenbeerenauslese is crafted from Albalonga, an uncommon grape variety crossed from Riesling and Silvaner in 1951. Albalonga is highly susceptible to noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) and retains remarkable acidity even at extreme ripeness levels, making it ideal for the painstaking, berry-by-berry selection required for a TBA. In the cellar, the highly concentrated must ferments exceptionally slowly. The resulting elixir is a monument to patience, offering an intense bouquet of dried apricots, honey, exotic spices, and a vibrant, mineral-driven acidity that perfectly balances its luscious sweetness.
🍾 About the Producer
With viticultural heritage in Westhofen dating back to 1663, Weingut Wittmann is one of Germany's most influential pioneers of organic and biodynamic viticulture in the Wonnegau sub-region of Rheinhessen. Under the visionary leadership of Philipp Wittmann, alongside his family, the estate transitioned to organic farming in 1990 and achieved full biodynamic certification in 2004. Wittmann's philosophy centers on intense vineyard care, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, and aging in traditional neutral oak casks to express the profound limestone-rich terroir of legendary VDP.Grosse Lage sites such as Morstein, Kirchspiel, Aulerde, and Brunnenhäuschen. Renowned globally for benchmark Grosses Gewächs dry Rieslings characterized by crystalline precision, tension, and chalky minerality, the estate also crafts exceptional noble sweet botrytis wines and refined Pinot Noir.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Albalonga