2018 Riesling de Rhin (Rhine Riesling), Cramer Oliver Bauer.

2018 R.R. (Rhein Riesling) Cramer Bauer:  100 % Rhine Riesling, single vineyard dry white wine: Vintage: 2018:Limited edition : 2600 bottles: 11,5 % Vol. Alc:  We had to search for a very long time until we finally found a suitable vineyard planted with Riesling with a classic “Riesling past”. Right from the start, the idea was not to produce a ‘knock-off’ or cheap copy of famous Riesling models, but rather to develop, or better to work out, our own Romanian Riesling style. In the cool climate region of Tarnaveni/Transilvania we found what we were looking for. The vineyard is still relatively young (10 years) but worked professionally and has proven its potential and that of the region in recent years. The grapes (5 tons/ha) were harvested by hand in mid-late October, selected and then immediately pressed (whole bunch pressing). The must is clarified by settling over 48 to 72 hours and then fermented in stainless steel tanks without the addition of selected yeast. Whether the wine is made dry or sweet depends on the vintage. The ’18 vintage in particular was difficult in this regard because even when the grapes were fully ripe, the sugar content to produce a wine with residual sugar was too low. To obatin a dry wine we fermented this vintage at a slightly higher temperature (21-22 degrees Celsius while restsweet wines at 17-18 degrees Celsius) and after fermentation we kept it on the fine lees for 9 months before bottling. This vintage was released then after another 12 months of bottle aging together with the restsweet 2019 vintage.