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Schloss Johannisberg comes to La Place de Bordeaux
Rheingau Riesling producer Schloss Johannisberg is accelerating its long-term strategy to bring its premium Rieslings to a wider international audience with the autumn release of two wines through La Place, db can reveal.
New releases on La Place de Bordeaux – or at least the press releases announcing the attention to bring new wines to La Place – tend to come in clusters. And following the news that Ernst Loosen is bringing three single-vineyard expressions of the famed Wehlener Sonnenuhr to La Place last week, db can now bring you news of a second pair of Rheingau Riesling releases.
From 21 October, Schloss Johannisberg will be marketing two premium wines – the Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Goldlack and the Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Orangelack Kabinett – through Le Bureau des Grands Vins on La Place de Bordeaux.
The wines will be available through a carefully selected pool of négociants: Barrière Frères; Compagnie Médocaine des Grand Crus; Crus et Domaines de France; CVBG; Ulysse Cazabonne; Yvon Mau Grand Crus; and Twins.
The first releases is the 2021 vintage of Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Goldlack and the 2023 vintage of Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Orangelack Kabinett, and db will be tasting and reviewing both wines before their release.
Although the winery is already represented in almost every country worldwide, this step will see Schloss Johannisberg accelerate a longer-term strategy to introduce its premium Rieslings to a global audience.
“By distributing through La Place de Bordeaux, we want to access new markets and customer groups,” estate director Stefan Doktor explained. “Our top Rieslings should be more accessible to lovers and collectors worldwide, and we want to further strengthen our brand. La Place is the right place for us to achieve this.”
Located in the heart of the Rheingau, Schloss Johannisberg’s winemaking history goes back 1,200 years and it claims to be the oldest Riesling winery in the world. The first varietal Riesling was planted here as early as 1720, and the castle has played a significant role in the variety’s development.
The 50-hectare single vineyard surrounds Schloss Johannisberg in a semicircle and slopes southwards towards the Rhine in terraces. The soil composition is characterised by Taunus quartzite with a layer of fertile loam and loess and a small amount of iron oxide, which gives the soil a reddish hue.
Doktor, who completed his studies at the Austrian Wine Academy as a Weinakademiker with a diploma in Wines and Spirits, has been managing Schloss Johannisberg as the estate director since 2016. His passion is to produce world-class Rieslings and to let the slopes of Schloss Johannisberg speak through its wines, citing the 1,200 years of history at Schloss Johannisberg as both “inspiration and motivation.”
He works alongside managing director Marcel Szopa, chief oenologist Michel Städter, and cellar master Gerd Ritter, relying on a combination of traditional craftsmanship and modern cellar technology.
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