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Welcome to the homepage of the SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate |
| This is a short directory through our Estate. Please click on the colored squares to receive the information you desire. |
 SYBILLE KUNTZ vintage 2007 |
 Winemakers |
 Vines and Wines |
| The New Sybille Kuntz Rieslings |
| Media and Awards |
| Importers |
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| Tastings |
| home |
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| SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate |
| Moselstrasse 25 |
| 54470 Bernkastel-Lieser |
| Germany |
| Tel. ++49 6531 91000 |
| Fax ++49 6531 91001 |
| E-mail:weingut@sybillekuntz.de |
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| Wine Shop opening hours |
| Mo - Fr 9.00 - 12.00 and 13:00 - 17:00 |
| tastings also by appointment |
Sybille Kuntz and Markus Kuntz-Riedlin are two of the leaders of the Mosel regions Riesling renaissance. The husband and wife team both came from winemaking families. But their SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate is less than 20 years old. Establishing a new Estate headed by a woman in the traditional German wine industry has been a challenge. However their dry and refined wines and stylish modern image have already made a splash on the international wine scene. They expand every year their vineyard holdings at the excellent locations in Lieser, Bernkastel-Kues and Wehlen to meet the growing demand for their wines.
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The vineyard plantings of the SYBILLE KUNTZ
Estate are between 40-80 years old. They are cultivated since 1990 under
ecological conditions. The couple adheres to the saying, that wine is
made in the vineyard not in the winery.
Their focus on low yield and their committment to producing pure and natural
Rieslings have resulted in superb grapes. Their winery has broken regional
records for the sugar count of its fruit.
SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate Riesling, Gold-Quadrat
and
DreiStern are examples of a new style of dry Riesling.
They are expressive, pure and ripe in style with a unique mineral complexity
provided by the idiosyncratic growing conditions of their region.
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JANCIS ROBINSON on 2007´s
…here’s a supplement to our already extensive coverage of Germany’s delicious 2007s… and the exciting wines of Sybille Kuntz in the Mosel….I would strongly urge any doubters of dry German Riesling to treat themselves to a bottle of Sybille Kuntz’s old-vine Gold Quadrat.
SYBILLE KUNTZ, Mosel
Some very impressive wines from this dry wine specialist whose wines have been enthusiastically embraced by some top sommeliers in the US. I happened to open a bottle of a relatively basic 2003 trocken of hers the other day and it was still very impressive
Sybille KUNTZ-RIESLING trocken 2007 Mosel
16+ Drink 2010-15
Dense nose with marked acidity. At the moment the wine is a little too austere for comfort. 12.5%
Sybille Kuntz, GOLD-QUADRAT Riesling trocken 2007 Mosel
18 Drink 2008-15
Honeyed pale straw. Wonderfully ripe, explosive nose – tight knit – with a hint of spice. Gorgeous already but no heat on the finish. A great introduction to modern dry German Riesling. Old vines make a great contribution here. 13.5%
Sybille Kuntz, Liesen Niederberg-Helden, HELDEN, Riesling 2007 Mosel
16.5 Drink 2008-12
Mineral nose with some hint of gingerbread and noticeable residual sugar – even slightly low in acidity! It’s almost as though this wine’s purpose is to show how much better balanced her dry wines are...! Good persistence anyway. 12%
Sybille Kuntz, Liesen Niederberg-Helden, SCHARZ, Riesling 2007 Mosel
17.5 Drink 2009-14
Tingly, molten, really exciting wine that is more concentrated than the Gold Quadrat. Very long and more youthful than the blessed Gold Quadrat. The alcohol actually seems more obvious. Suggestion of grapefruit juice. 13%
JANCIS ROBINSON
2004 German wine - the tasting notes
Publication date: 02 July 2005 Financial Times
Jancis Robinson has tasted 250 German wines and listed the SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate with
the Top 20 German producers.
SYBILLE KUNTZ, Mosel
2004 Sybille Kuntz Estate Riesling (Dry) 16.5+ GV Drink 2005-07
Fruity, curranty nose. Very fresh and a definite suggestion of ripe sweetness but with great definitive positive attack on the finish. Powerful attack. Good value
.
2004 Wehlen Sonnenuhr Spätlese Trocken 17 Drink 2006-08
(13%) Dense, minerally nose obviously with lots of extract. Full yet dry with real lift. Real concentration without being (too) hot or (at all) oily.
2004 Dreistern 17.5 Drink 2005-10
All of 14 per cent alcohol, relatively deep gold, a very big unexpected mouthful from the Mosel. If your model is traditional delicate, fruity, featherlight Mosel, you’ll hate this. But if you’re able to look at it simply as a wine, a direct competitor to a Wachau Smaragd for example, then you should be able to appreciate its concentration and nervy intensity. No shortage of acidity; no oiliness. Well done! Good balance if slightly hot on the finish.
THE NEW SYBILLE KUNTZ RIESLINGS
SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate Riesling
The Estate Riesling is an excellent quality wine picked late at harvest. The cuvee from our sites Lieser and Bernkastel-Kues is vinified as our dry SYBILLE KUNTZ-Riesling. You will find this Riesling on the wine list of famous restaurants and fine wine shops around the world. Also served for years now at state banquets or national and international political events, for example at the visit of the German Chancellor in Asia in May of 2003. During the International Wine and Spirits Fair in London the 2002 Estate Riesling was selected as a winner at the 2003 Marketing Initiative of the German Wine Information Bureau.
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SYBILLE KUNTZ Gold-Quadrat
The story of this speciality began in 1998, as we created an innovative dry power Riesling. This is an ultra-premium quality wine. Grapes are selected from the most mature and oldest vineyard sites of the Estate and these old vines, planted in the 1920s have low yields and small berries with intense flavour profiles. We take great care to pre-pick the steep Riesling vineyards several times. Only the healthy and most mature grapes remain on the vines. The grapes continue to ripen until they reach a natural potential alcohol level of 11-11,5 % by vol . From these very ripe and golden yellow grapes we make the much celebrated: Gold-Quadrat. Our new dry power Riesling has aromas of honey, apricots and yellow plums. Gold-Quadrat was named food wine of the Year 2000 and White Wine of the Year in 2001 in Belgium and Holland by Proefschrift.
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SYBILLE KUNTZ DreiStern
With "DreiStern" Sybille and Markus Kuntz have created a great food wine, fermented dry and yet with all the richness and weight provided by 12.5 - 13.5% natural alcohol. Combine this with the ripe phenolics achieved by :
a
very steep, well exposed site (the Lieser Niederberg- Helden
is south/south west) |
| low
yields |
| late
picking - using non-botrytis berries harvested alongside Beerenauslese
(BA) and Trockenbeeren-auslese (TBA)
producing grapes |
all of course balanced by the natural racy acidity of the great Riesling grape. Finally, combine all these flavour elements with the mineral complexity provided by old vines (40-75 years) planted on classic Mosel grey slate, and you have a true premium Riesling. DreiStern is a wine to surprise the jaded palate of the modern consumer; with food or without it is a great example of what Germany can produce.
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SYBILLE KUNTZ Vintage 2007
Lieser, October 20th, 2007
The continous sunny weather engaged us to a second pre-picking and in the upcoming and last harvest week are the super ripe and golden-yellow colored grapes on schedule to be collected.
The morning temperatures of around 35° F until midday are in the forecast for the final harvest week. The sugar reading of the grapes will increase at this stage only through dehydration of the berries, because the yellow colored foliage has stopped there photosynthesis activity.
The high Brix levels promise a collection of luscious and very tasty Riesling wines. The spirit of our young and ambitious picking team is fantastic despite the cold temperatures in the vineyards - a super team -.
Lieser, October 16th, 2007
Vintage 2007 is fantastic so far.
After the pre-picking of all our 70 Riesling parcels at the end of September/ beginning of October started the main harvest with the KUNTZ-RIESLING. Fabulous October weather ond perfectly ripe grapes bring aromatic juices
with great sugar acid balance.
The sugar reading at the beginning of over 90° Oechsle (22,5° Brix) moved by now to over 100° Oechsle in the steeper and older parcels towords the GOLD-QUADRAT level. At the moment is the selection of the raisins happening. The picking of SCHARZ and HELD is this week on schedule. The weather forecast promises continuously sunny days for the coming week.
SYBILLE KUNTZ vintage 2007
Harvest Report 2005: A Vintage like 100 years ago
Since last week the harvest 2005 is over.
Grape picking began on October 9th with 94° Oechsle at super nice October weather. Two days later the sugar readings passed over 100° Oechsle and went ever higher.
Yields are in general lower than usual. In addition did the SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate in the summer cluster reducing to two grapes per shoot (appr. 10 grapes per vine). 85 percent of the juice has over 100° Oechsle, 60 % even over 110° Oechsle, at an average yield of 32 hl/ha (12.5 hl/acre).
These are yields and qualities like 100 years ago. The persisting sunny harvest weather assured a permanently increasing sugar level. One "Fuder" (1000 l) with 130° Oechsle from botrytis grapes has been filled during harvest and another one with 700 l with extraordinary 160°-170°
Oechsle.
The Riesling DREISTERN 2005 has 115° Oechsle, and according to our analysis a to be expected total alcohol of 128 g/l (15.5 % by Vol), total Acidity is 9 g/l and pH 3,17. Perfect! In the meantime we have pressed the Riesling Trockenbeerenauslesen at amazing 251° Oechsle and 275° Oechsle and around 15 g/l Acidity.
Just to see how incredible these sugar readings are:
275° Oechsle = 1275 g/l specific weight of the juice
275° Oechsle = 660 g/l sugar and 34 % by Vol. potential alcohol
Image-ZOOM (68kb)Indian Summer in Germany - A Golden October 2005...
... it already seems unprecedented, yes almost inexplicable: the sugar readings of the grapes are at the beginning of the harvest
between 95° to 115° Oechsle (23° to 28° Brix). After 2003 we couldn´t imagine seeing a similiar great vintage so soon. The yields are low - between 30 to 50 hl/ha, and the acidities are between 8 to 10 g/l.
We are picking the super ripe Estate (trocken) grapes in the morning in the raising fog with amazing harvest weather. With afternoon temperatures around 20° C (68° F) we pick the best "GOLD-QUADRAT- and DREISTERN-grapes³ from our best vineyards.
The weather forecast until the end of next week looks super. As a result of these optimal weather conditions a combination of morning fog, and warm temperatures in the afternoon - all grapes of the yield reduced vineyards are ripe. Therefore we are pre-scheduling the harvest of these vineyards to avoid loosing the raisins to any forthcoming rain.
Image-ZOOM (60kb)The preparations for the upcoming vintage 2005 are in full progress.
At the moment close observation on the ripening process of the grapes is crucial. Also frequent berry sampling for flavor tests and sugar readings is essential for a better understanding of the grape development stages in the particular vineyard parcels. All is focused towards the beginning of harvest which is scheduled to start during the second week of October.
Of course one should not praise the wine before its in the barrel, however 2005 looks already very, very promising. Super nice weather, already moderate acidity levels of 10-12 g/L and sugar readings for Riesling around 80° Oechsle and above. These are close to perfect conditions for another very good vintage.
Still lots of things can happen until the harvest is in the cellar and even though at the moment we are very happy about the amazingly ripe looking grapes.
Image-ZOOM (60kb)the vineyard work for another good vintage 2005 have been almost completed. The spontaneous vegetation of our biological vineyard management is still a bit uncontrolled and needs a few correction by hand. The additonal foliage will be again cut back and then.... waiting for a good harvest.The grapes this year have developed nicely. We had so far this season just about the right balance of rain and sunshine. The sugar readings are between 45° to 55° Oechsle and ripeness is 10 days ahead of schedule (compared to the long year average). Every additonal day from now on will bring 1°Oechsle more.
The phanological development of the vineyards is between the vintages 2003 and 2004 - both super vintages.Like in 2004 a green harvest was done at the end of July beginning of August to reduced the yield to 2 grapes per shoot. This leads to about 10 grapes per vine and an estimated crop level of 45 - 50 hl/ha. The ripeness of the grapes will be optimized and even if we have unpleasurable harvest weather we will benefit from this procedure.
Keep your fingers crossed with us for another good harvest.
We will keep you informed.
Artikel RYANAIR.Magazine, August 2005
Winemaker Sybille Kuntz, from the Mosel region, creates excellent-quality wines from almost 100-year-old vines.
It’s dusty and dark in the Kuntz family’s ancient wine cellar.
A train of tiny gas bubbles rises continuously from the windingglass tubes stuck tightly in countless wine barrels.
Sybille Kuntz smiles contentedly: as long as the bubbles keep rising, the grapejuice is happily fermenting and maturing in wooden casks and stainless steel tanks, safely on its way to becoming the unmatched Mosel Riesling. Sybille Kuntz, only daughter of a long-established Mosel winemaking family, founded her own wine estate in 1984 in her home village Bernkastel-Lieser. At the age of 27, wellequipped with a degree in economics, and with the support of husband Markus – oenologist from South Baden, incidentally from a family that also looks back on a long history of wine-making – Sybille Kuntz made up her mind to pursue her ownvery special wine philosophy...
read PDF-page (250kb) Date: 08.January 2005 Circulation: cd 83, 000
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The vintage 2003 is still a matter of discussion. For us it was a perfect vintage. Fascinating wines from the Estate Riesling to our Trockenbeerenauslese.
This was just confirmed by one of the most influential German Wine Guide "Eichelmann German Wines 2005". The independent Wine Guide is listing 813 Estates and evaluates 8378 wines. Eichelmann selected the SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate for the award of the MOST PROGRESSIVE ESTATE OF THE YEAR:
"Few on the Mosel were able with the vintage 2003 to repeat their quality accomplishments of the previous vintage. Sybille Kuntz and Markus Kuntz-Riedlin improved their progressive wine making, their Riesling wines are intensely pure, complex and concentrated and belong to the best Riesling wines in Germany."
The Eichelmann wine guide was released during a press conference at the Heidelberg Castle on November 2004.
more...| Talking
wine: Give me one good Riesling By Jonathon Alsop / Correspondent Wednesday, May 5, 2004 |
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"2001 Sybille Kuntz Gold-Quadrat Riesling (about $17, available from Classic and VOS Selections, 212-967-6948). Flamboyant and perfumed, the Gold-Quadrat is modern, maybe even a little post-modern. This wine is super on its own or spectacular with blackened scallops and scallions, slow-cooked pork ribs, or grilled chicken." |
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| THE OBSERVER
10/2003 Restaurant Jean Georges***, New York by Peter Carey There was, in New York's best restaurant,
amazingly, something pleasantly homely about the clientele. This was very relaxing. By the third
glass of wine, a Riesling Gold-Quadrat 2001 by Sybille Kuntz, I was feeling
rather sophisticated, even glamorous... |
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Hugh Johnson´s Pocket Wine Book 2003 The SYBILLE KUNTZ Estate is listed with ***
Gault Millau WineGuide Germany
2003 Eichelmann Germany`s Wines
2003 |
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International Wine and Spirits Fair London
5/ 2003 Wine Television 3/2003 (Mosel,
Germany): Hugh Johnson's, 1/2003 |
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Michael Apstein,
1/2003 Mario Scheuermann
12/ 2002 in www.degustation.de: |
Hubrecht Duijker, 12/2002
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