The Insider’s Guide to Württemberg Riesling

By Valerie Kathawala, TRINK Magazine

"On a sharp tip from Moritz Haidle (Weingut Karl Haidle) I nosed a tiny rental car up the steep hills + bends directly above town to meet Maximilian Kusterer of Weingut Kusterer.

Max, who recently took over from his parents, Monika and Hans, is a deeply thoughtful, expert guide. No more so then when exploring his family’s astonishing, vertiginous, and nearly 1,000-year-old terraced vineyards. Facing south over the Neckar, now farmed organically & brimming with life, it’s an impossibly rare and beautiful place for old vine Riesling, among other things — and a colossal commitment to preservation of these exacting terraces.

There are no easy answers to working them. The cellar is ingenious. Designed by Max’s parents, it’s built over four levels directly into the Schenkenberg cliff for natural climate control & a clever gravity-fed system. The wines are dry & beautifully, classically styled across the board: gentle-pressed, half spontaneously fermented, w/ long lees aging a must. Open-top fermenters & barrique for the reds, a blend of tank & wood for the whites.

The 2019 Riesling Alte Reben is laserbeam of lemon & herbs, w/ a seductively reductive nose & incredible mineral salinity on a precise, linear palate. I’d have stuffed my suitcase if this weren’t my first stop. But it’s clear Max’s heart beats fastest for “Burgundersorten” and his Neckarhalde monopole site. His training w/ Pinot masters Paul Fuerst & Friedrich Becker is fully in evidence. The 2020 “Neckarhalde” Chardonnay is supremely elegant, mouthwateringly citric & salty, compellingly drinkable even as it brings you up short w/ its depth & complexity.

A pair of 2019 Spätburgunder were superb. Refined w/ excellent concentration & layers of savory, earth & herbaceous notes in perfect balance. Swabia has a new star."

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