Clemens Busch, Marienburg Falkenlay Riesling Trocken GG, 2024

"The 2024 Riesling Pundericher Marienburg Falkenlay Grosses Gewächs is the gray slate expression of the GGs. Reduction still defines the nose, while the concentrated yet svelte palate tingles with a beautifully taut, lemony brightness that moves into cool stoniness. Salt makes the mouth water amid all this citric beauty. The 2024 has yet to unfold. (Bone-dry) "

"The Marienburg GG Falkenlay 2024, as it is referred to on the main part of the label, was fermented spontaneously in traditional oak casks from fruit harvested in a grey-slate infused part of the Marienburg vineyard. It proves quite restrained at first and only gradually reveals a refined and quite herbal nose of smoke, aniseed, lime tree, wild herbs, licorice, and tar. The wine is quite impressive on the palate, where it reveals a slightly broader side, with intensity and depth. It also shows a quite important dry extract and concentration and still is very primary. This is a bolder and very impressive GG in the making."

"This is shy wild flowers and green foraged herbs, a quiet expression of the rocky stone from which it came. This offers a confident counterpoint to the more angular Fahrlay. Impressive and broad with softer edges and a more serene balance on the palate, and threaded with a truly electric grapefruit tension. The result is a wine of immense character, a bold statement piece in the 2024 collection."