Weingut Merkelbach

This is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ estate, totalling just over 1 hectare! Until this year, this was run by two brothers, who were still tending their vineyard with unrivalled passion well into their seventies. Sadly, both brothers have now passed away, and it's the renowned Selbach family now stewarding the estate, using the same traditional methods that garnered the estate so many followers. They have lots of old vines amongst their parcels of Rosenberg in Kinheim and Würzgarten in Ürzig, the largest holding, many of which are very old and ungrafted. Each tiny parcel from these sites is vinified separately, and blending of fuders is kept to a real minimum. Würzgarten (spice garden) is a brilliant, classic vineyard that rises up very steeply indeed. It’s a mix of volcanic deposit and Devonian slate and the soil is iron rich and quite red. Wines from here should combine both power, texture, spice and athleticism. Few vineyards in the Mosel produce wines with such seductive fruit flavours. By comparison, the Rosenberg vineyard in Kinheim is another very steep affair but produces wines of real delicacy and understatement.