Dr Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Wachenheimer Rechbächel P.C. 2018

'Slightly funky at first showing some butter and bean curd, but I love the notes of quince, loquat and mirabelle plums. Full-bodied with lots of body and mouth feel, but a subtle yet racy line of acidity. Porcelain-textured finish makes this a very complex and long riesling. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink now.' 95 points, Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com, September 2019.

'From weathered Buntsandstein sandstone soils, the 2018 Wachenheimer Rechbächel P.C. opens with a clear, still reductive bouquet with herbal notes. On the palate, the wine is pure, fresh and juicy, very pleasant and harmonious with a stimulating salinity and fine grip. Still a baby but promising. Tasted in Wachenheim in December 2019. Drink 2022-2038.' 92 points, Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate, February 2020.

'In this discipline [dry Riesling], this estate has essentially no rival in all of Germany. In fact, given their sheer vineyard potential—they’re capable of producing seven grand crus and an equal number of premier crus in any given vintage—this may well be the best and most consistent producer of great dry Riesling in the world.' Joel B. Payne, Vinous, January 2013.

The Bürklin-Wolf estate is based in the Mittelhaardt, the quality core of Germany's world-renowned Pfalz, around the towns of Wachenheim, Forst, Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg. Here with 85ha under vine they have the largest family owned wine estate in all of Germany originating in 1597, with a treasure-trove of superb vineyards, at the centre of which lies the great Kirchenstück. Here in the tiny village of Forst, Kirchenstück and its neighbours Jesuitengarten, Ungeheuer and Pechstein, have for centuries been recognised as producing not only some of the world's greatest dry Rieslings, but simply some of the world's greatest wines. In the nineteenth century, prices for these wines exceeded the prices paid for 1st Growth Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundy.

In 1990 Bürklin-Wolf began reviewing their vineyard holdings in the context of the 1828 Royal Bavarian Land Tax Classification and after years of exhaustive research they discovered that today's top vineyards are exactly the same as those identified back in 1828. Today they have adopted a Burgundian model with four tiers: Estate, Village, PC (code for Premier Cru) and GC (for Grand Cru). Thus they are focussed on the production of dry, terroir-driven wines and no longer produce the Kabinett and Spätlese styles defined by the (still current) 1971 German Wine Law.