Jurtschitsch, Riesling Heiligenstein 1st Lage, 2023 [Pre-Arrival ETA 7/15]

The Zöbinger Heiligenstein is one of the great Riesling hills of the world, and its soil is genuinely strange: a reddish, 270-million-year-old desert sandstone shot through with volcanic conglomerate, laid down in the Permian era and now somehow sitting at the surface. Vines almost never get to grow on rock this ancient, and you can taste the difference — this dry Riesling has a smoky, mineral intensity that only Heiligenstein delivers. Jurtschitsch farms it organically, ferments wild, and raises the wine in big old oak foudres so nothing gets in the way of the site. This is Kamptal's benchmark cru, from a family that has worked it for generations. Cellar it, or open it and taste 270 million years.