To give this wine its full name it is the 2023 Weingut Axel Pauly Lieserer Niederberg Helden Riesling Alte Reben Trocken.
Axel Pauly is a dynamic young star of German wine. After many years honing his craft across Germany, as well as in California and New Zealand, he took over the Pauly family estate, in the Mosel, from his father. Most of this 10-hectare estate is situated in the village of Lieser, at the heart of the Mosel Valley, with the exception of a small parcel in neighbouring Bernkastel. Fittingly, the label features the Mosel hills which, when turned on their side, reveals the ‘Tres Naris’ (or ‘three noses’) of Axel, his father and his grandfather.
Lieser’s grey and blue slate soils are cooler than the red slate in Bernkastel, resulting in more mineral wines than those from its more famous neighbour. The Pauly vines cling to steeply sloping, vertigo-inducing vineyards. Axel uses crop thinning, leaf plucking and grape selection at harvest to ensure a flavour ripeness in the fruit he preserves to the final wine.
The ‘Helden’ (meaning ‘heroes’ in German) Riesling, was harvested from 80-year-old vines from the top site of Lieserer Niederberg-Helden. The vineyard faces south west and has a gradient of up to 80 degrees in some parts. The soils are grey and blue slate and the vines are trained on a single wire. The climate is much cooler than in the red slate vineyards of the neighbouring Bernkastel, and imparts a greater mineral character to the wines. The wind dries the grapes in the Lieserer Niederberg-Helden and therefore protects them against fungal diseases. Stringent crop-thinning, leaf removal and a long ripening period ensured excellent ripeness and flavour in the grapes.
Pale, straw yellow with youthful green highlights, the nose displays attractive aromas of ripe apple and wild pear. The palate is marked by wonderful concentration, refreshing acidity and a long, precise finish.
