Wachter Wiesler, Blaufrankisch Eisenberg "Bela-Joska", 2022 [Pre-Arrival ETA 7/15]

This is the wine Christoph Wachter puts his family name behind — Béla-Jóska, named for his two grandfathers, is the flagship of the estate. It draws on parcels across Deutsch Schützen and the Eisenberg hill itself, blending fruit off iron-rich clay and the region's famous green slate. That combination is the whole point of Eisenberg, which translates literally to "iron mountain": you get a Blaufränkisch that tastes genuinely ferrous and savory, spicy rather than sweet, built for the cellar. Fermented with native yeast and aged in large neutral oak with no new-wood makeup, it's the estate's signature regional cuvee, its most representative bottling (the single-vineyard wines are more concentrated and age-worthy) while staying firmly in the cool-climate, medium-bodied register. Pre-Arrival, arriving mid-July.