Weedenborn - Chardonnay Réserve 2020
We drink a bottle of Chardonnay Réserve 2020 from the winery Weedenborn from Rheinhessen.
The Weedenborn winery is located in Monzernheim in Rheinhessen at 232 meters above sea level. To whom Monzernheim means as much as it does to me: That’s about 2.5 kilometers as the crow flies northwest of Westhofen. For Rheinhessen, over 200 meters is pretty high, and the 232 N.N. has thus also found its way onto the cork. And something else is special here. Although Rheinhessen is without a doubt Riesling territory, I myself have actually almost always come across the Weedenborn winery in connection with Sauvignon Blanc, a grape variety that doesn’t even appear in the 10 most frequently cultivated varieties in the area in 2019 according to Wikipedia, but plays the leading role here at the winery. However, Gesine Roll of course grows other varieties and there is even Riesling. Since I somehow like to drink Chardonnay at the moment, there is neither Riesling nor Sauvignon Blanc, but just Chardonnay. The Réserve from 2020 was allowed to mature after spontaneous fermentation for 18 months in new wood on the full lees before it was filled unfiltered.
You can smell the wood quite intensely. The wine seems cool, dense, a bit yellow and just quite clearly woody so directly after opening. Really not much else wants to happen there and you notice pretty clearly that oxygen is required here. Everything is very close together on the tongue as well. This is stony, mineral and kind of salty up front on the tongue with a bit of green apple in there. It’s very good without question, but at the same time that’s not there at all. And because we have time and do not have to be content with potential-drinking, it remains with the one glass and the rest stays overnight in the refrigerator. The last few years have shown time and again that this is the best solution.
As expected, this also helps. The wine has become much rounder, the wood more integrated, the fruit more there. With a few degrees more temperature, this becomes even clearer. Too cold is not good here at all. This becomes really creamy on the tongue and the wood provides the structure. This is fresh, fine, very elegant and really good. This starts to become totally harmonious and still has edge at the same time. And while I really like this, I don’t think it’s reached the end of its evolution yet, which is still going by waiting in the open bottle. So back towards the fridge again.
And I was right. It actually becomes even softer, even more harmonious, even a bit more refined. The wood has become much quieter, the fruit is cool and precise. And at the same time, this is super mineral and full of herbs. When you drink this now you have to pay attention to the flavors that are flowing past you, so much is happening. Within the framework of wood structure, the creaminess has also made itself quite comfortable by now. I like how harmonious and round it has come together over the three days. And I’m pleased that it has taken this development at all. Just because you think that there is still something coming in the next few days, there is exactly zero guarantee that it indeed will happen. Here it worked out. And as always, personal preference may favor one or the other evening more or less. For me, it is often the second evening, the evening when it is already soft and round, but the edge has not yet disappeared. And that was also the case here. But the real value lies in drinking over more than one day anyway not in arriving somewhere, but in the journey itself. This bottle has once again clearly shown that.