Sybille Kuntz « orange riesling »

Grapes: Riesling 

Region: Mosel, Germany 

Vintage: 2020

Viticulture: Organic 

Fining or Filtering: None 

Sulfur: None 

Notes from the Importer: 

Sybille Kuntz produced her first Orange Riesling in 2017. It’s a unique style of wine with freshness and high acidity along with lovely spice notes behind the grapefruit and orange pith fruit. Orange wine is a type of white wine made by leaving the grape skins and seeds in contact with the juice, creating a deep orange-hued finished product.

According to Sybille, "The grapes are harvested without Botrytis berries with sugar readings of 85° - 95° Oechsle in the second week of October. We crush and de-stem them into an open vat. Here they skin ferment and macerate for 6 weeks. After pressing we age the orange wine in old 1000 litre Fuder barrels for another 6 months. Then we bottle with no prior filtration and no sulphur addition at any stage of the process."

Sybille took over her family estate in the early 1980’s. She had opened a wine shop a few years earlier and realised that her parent’s wine was poor compared to others in the region. She thought she could do better and was right! Sybille now farms the 45 acre estate with her husband Markus along strict biodynamic principals. The wines have a complexity, freshness and modern appearance that puts them amongst the best in the region.