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The Geheimrat J of the Wegeler wineries in the Rheingau is considered a modern classic of Riesling: dry, characterised by the terroir and capable of being stored for a long time. In the 1980s, it set a new standard for German wine in restaurants. In 2009 it celebrates its 25th vintage.

Geheimrat J often takes many years to mature. Even vintages over 20 years old show an amazing amount of fruit and substance (Photo: Wegeler)

In 1983, an important wine had to have one thing above all: Must weight. The Spätlese was still considered something very special, almost no one knew the terms "dry" and "terroir". At most, this was a topic of conversation for collectors, snobs and connoisseurs. In good German restaurants, high-quality white wine was sold mainly from Burgundy. Not from Germany. From the perspective of the early 1980s, Norbert Holderieth therefore did everything wrong. The then cellar master of the Geheimrat J Wegeler Erben wineries from Oestrich-Winkel in the Rheingau developed a dry Spätlese cuvée from Riesling from the best sites that year. It was dry. It had no vineyard designation. It clearly tasted of its Rheingau terroir. The winegrowers whispered: What is he doing? No one really understood what Holderieth wanted to do with it. But wine connoisseurs and above all restaurants had been waiting for a dry wine that embodied precisely this style. When Geheimrat J was first introduced in early 1985, it sold out within eight weeks. The wine became a model for many later top Rieslings. Holderieth had named it after the estate founder Julius Wegeler, who was awarded the honorary title of Geheimrat in 1893. In the meantime, the wine has become so popular that fans are happy to leave aside the "Geheimrat" in the name: J" is mainly drunk with food - in the USA and Sweden as well as in Italy and Israel.

Anja and Tom Drieseberg are the owners of the Wegeler winery with three estates - in the Rheingau% in the Palatinate and on the Moselle

Since 1998, Dr. Tom Drieseberg has been the managing director of three Wegeler estates: the Rheingau estate in Oestrich is also the company's headquarters, along with the estates in Bernkastel on the Moselle and in Deidesheim in the Palatinate. All three work completely independently, but with the same quality philosophy. Drieseberg explains the basic character of the "J" as follows: "The basic components of the J are two types of wine. In Rüdesheim and Geisenheim, mineral Rieslings grow on slate and quartzite. The sites in Winkel and Oestrich produce rather fragrant, soft wines on loam, marl and loess soils. The right combination of both ultimately makes it. We have a dozen "Große Gewächs" sites from which we can pick the grapes best suited for the year. The yield is currently "just under 50 hectolitres per hectare in the younger vineyards," says Michael Burgdorf, the cellar master in charge today, "in the vineyards that are over 50 years old we are only at 35 hectolitres."

Burgdorf, who previously worked at the organic winery Heyl zu Herrnsheim in Rheinhessen, often has to travel long distances to work: Julius Wegeler had namely bought vineyards on the Rhine along the length of about 20 river kilometres - including top terroirs such as the three famous Rüdesheim mountain sites Rottland, Schloßberg and Roseneck, but also on the Geisenheim Rothenberg, the Winkel Jesuitengarten or in the Johannisberg Hölle. "He wanted to be sure that he could harvest good wines in any weather," the winemaker explains. He explains the idea at the time as follows: "If it's really wet, I still get grapes from the Rüdesheim sites where the water drains off well. If it is too dry, I make the wines from the Oestrich and Hallgarten sites, where the soils are fatter and store the water better." The idea of Holderieth, now 74, was to transfer the Bordeaux principle to his work in the Rheingau. On a trip to Champagne, he learned about the quality principle, which was still unknown to German winemakers: The name of the chateau stands for a recognisable, terroir-driven wine. "But we first had to learn how to make it," says Holderieth modestly. He quickly understood that this claim can only be achieved with perfectly ripened grapes. He followed this insight consistently: if the must weights were not sufficient, there was no "J". This is what happened in 1984, 1987 and 1991. The quality of the Riesling was demonstrated at an anniversary tasting organised by Ralf Frenzel, editor of the German edition of the wine magazine "Fine", in Frankfurt am Main: the 1983 showed a highly elegant combination of ripe fruit and beautiful, complex minerality. Pure elegance

The Geheimrat J is still Wegeler's flagship today and stands above the Erste Gewächse in the hierarchy. "We are lucky to have 15 First Growths from whose wines we can produce the "J"," says Burgdorf, "so we can leave out top wines from the cuvée that don't harmonise with the whole." He vinifies about half of the wine in old lump or double lump barrels; about 25 per cent is their share in the Geheimrat J. The Wegeler team tastes the wines up to 30 times until the cuvée is composed - Norbert Holderieth sits at the table with them. But to achieve this wine quality, Burgdorf and Drieseberg have "decelerated" the operation, as the managing director puts it: "In spring 2000, the separators were rolled off the farm and sold second-hand." They did not invest in technology, but in gravity-based technology, large pressing capacity and harvest workers. "The only thing we have afforded are harvesting trucks that can be raised hydraulically to a height of three metres to work with gravity. We are in the flat countryside here, there is no other way," Drieseberg reports. "In addition, we have reduced the cultivation area by 20 per cent, while at the same time increasing our pressing capacity by 50 per cent, so that today we can decide for ourselves: Do we want a standing time or not? Today, the tractors do not have to wait an hour in the yard until they can be unloaded. When we decide to press off a load, there is capacity," adds cellar master Burgdorf

In the tank, the wine has to do the rest itself. That can take time. Because when it is already at full capacity after fermentation and only a short storage period, Burgdorf becomes sceptical: "When a wine starts at one hundred, I always worry that no second or third stage will follow," he says, "that can't happen with the J." It has to start at 80 to 85 per cent "and develop perspective from there". In the cellar, too, he goes through "very different phases". He doesn't let the ups and downs drive him crazy. For him, the right selection of grapes is decisive for the right perspective: "This autumn, we selected for six weeks and searched for a long time in the vineyard until we found the grapes we needed

The Geheimrat Julius Wegeler Erben winery with its idyllic courtyard is located in the middle of the famous Rheingau wine village of Oestrich-Winkel

Nearly 45,000 bottles per vintage reach the customers only shortly before Christmas of the following year. "At that time, the First and Great Growths of the other estates have already been on the market for three months. "The idea of the J is counterproductive for marketing. We come at a time when the first wines of the current year are already on offer again. But the J needs maturing time, and we want to give it that," says Drieseberg. In order to show how Geheimrat J develops over the years, he offers his customers not only the current vintages, but also a significantly more mature year - so not only the years 2008, 2007 and 2006 are currently available - but also 2000. A timeless wine with perspective.

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