“R8”
from Simply Wine
€ 9.90
„Wow! It smells of slate…and of limestone…and lots more…“ cascaded out of the mouth of the Jungwinzer or young German winegrower next to me at the table. He was tasting a dry white wine completely blind and everything he said about it was completely right. Into his glass went wines which grew on slate, limestone and a bunch of other soil types as well. Out of his glass poured aromas that shot in all directions like a firework rocket exploding in the sky. He had just tasted a unique German white called „R8“, that is R to the power of 8.
Four years ago the then 8 strong Jungwinzer group Simply Wine mixed up their first „R8“ from one dry Riesling per member. I have to admit that the idea was mine and everyone inclusing me was highly scpetical about it. However, at the tasting to assemble the first R8 all of us were astonished how well wines from such differing soils, climates and five German winegrowing regions married together. The result tasted harmonious and complex! Good as the earlier vintages of R8 were, the 2011 – as a plain „Deutscher Wein“ it may carry neither the vintage nor the name of a grape variety on the label – is easily the best so far. What is the secret of this ground-breaking multi-terroir-wine? Certainly one part of it is the dry Müller-Thurgau from new Simply Wine member Christian Stahl of Winzerhof Stahl in Auernhofen/Franken in the mix. That and improvements at the other member prodcers means the new R8 was composed from 9 highly expressive and individual wines. That number was the only thing which my Jungwinzer friend who tasted the result blind couldn’t tell me!
PS Christian Steitz (see below) was the source for the Riesling grown on prophyry in R8
„R8“ is available from
Christian Steitz
Weingut Steitz
Mörsfelder Strasse 3
55599 Stein-Bockenheim/Rheinhessen
Tel: (49) / 0 6703 9 30 80
Email: christian@weingut-steitz.de
Web: www.simply-wine.eu