Dominik Mueller

This weekend, my wife and I were at Weingut Salwey in Oberrotweil in the Kaiserstuhl region of Baden, Germany. The Kaiserstuhl is Germany’s warmest wine growing region. The soil there consists mainly of volcanic rock and lava, with a large part covered by loess and clay.

Although some of the wines on Salwey’s tasting menu were already sold out, there was still everything to taste and buy from the higher-priced wines. I didn’t take any notes, so these are just my impressions afterwards. More detailed notes will follow in the future when I can sit down and spend more time with each of the individual wines we bought.

We started with a sip of the Weißburgunder Gutswein, which is one of their estate wines. Vinified in steel tanks. It was decent, but didn’t leave a lasting impression. Good as a first glass to get the palate in the right mood.

The 2020 Weißburgunder RS (Reserve, pinot blanc, a village wine) was a big step up in quality. Great nose, a bit nutty and earthy. On the palate, nice and fresh and herbaceous, rather sparse fruit, which I liked. Aged on the lees in large wooden barrels for about 18 months.

The 2019 Grauburgunder Eichberg GG, yes, finally a pinot gris I really liked! The acidity felt a bit lower than with the Weißburgunder RS, but the Grauburgunder is a complex wine nonetheless. Here I remember cinnamon and apple, some smoke. Nice and fresh in the mouth. Not one of those broad and tired barrel-aged pinot gris. Elegant, I liked it very much. Also matured in large barrels, but for almost 3 years. Consequently, I would expect good ageing potential here.

2016 “Sieben Winter” Weißwein, a cuvée of 80% pinot gris and 20% chardonnay. As the name suggests, it was left on the lees for seven years (in a 5,000 litre barrel). An experiment by Konrad Salwey. Surprisingly fresh and fruity, probably the fruitiest white wine we tasted today. Good drinking flow, again somewhat higher acidity and citrus fruit. Well done, we made sure to buy some bottles. Maturity potential difficult to assess, not so high would be my guess.

2019 Kirchberg Spätburgunder GG very great, probably in a fruit phase right now, lots of cherry, slightly smoky and long, spicy finish. Matured in barrique, half new wood, half second or third fill. Easily over 10 years of ageing potential, it will develop well and become more complex. At the moment mainly hedonistic fruit. :)