Author: Dirk Chan
Our online feature this week is the 2020 Weinhaus Ress Pinot Noir (Rheingau, Germany) – $16.99, regularly $20.99.
The Ress family’s success is tied to the town of Hattenheim (45 min drive SW of Frankfurt). For generations a family of butchers, in the late 1800’s Balthasar Ress founded the “Gasthof Ress” Inn on the town’s main street. Balthasar produced house wines for his guests enjoyment so by the mid 1900’s the family would purchase additional land and properties, becoming a full fledged wine estate. By 1947 the estate owned 3 hectares of vineyards of vines. Today the estate has grown to 46 hectares of vineyards, and is managed by Christian Ress, the fifth generation winemaker.
Located in the Rheingau, one of Germany’s well known and most productive wine regions. The vineyards sit on south facing slopes on the banks of the rivers Rhine and Main either side of Wiesbaden . The climate is perfect for growing Riesling and Pinot Noir, and this light and juicy Pinot Noir has lots of concentrated red fruit flavours with some delicate spice notes all backed up with an elegant body and a raspberry and curranty finish. It’s a deliciously, moreish example of the modern German take on Pinot Noir, more substance than the normal Spatsburgunder.
2020 Weinhaus Ress Pinot Noir (Rheingau, Germany) – $16.99 (regularly $20.99)