LardotRiesling “der Hirt” 2021 (750ml)

“Der Hirt” is Sourced from a south-facing, slate-soiled vineyard called the Valwiger Herrenberg (two photos are in the gallery, to the left). This wine likely wouldn’t pass the “Mosel wine authorities;” they want everything filtered and crystal clear! So Philip has to (and, I’d add, is perfectly happy to) sell it as a simple “Landwein.” The problem is that you can’t indicate the vineyard site with such a wine, so Philip has created a persona, “der Hirt” or shepherd. This is, after all, the “Herrenberg,” or, “hill of the shepherd.” A similar character was created for his other Rieslings. There are two parcels here that Philip is working (0.21 hectares combined), both terraced vineyards with ungrafted vines from 30 to 75 years old. All the wine was put into 225 and 500 liter barrels for 12 months on full lees and then six months in stainless steel to help the wine settle. Before bottling, roughly 20ppm SO2 was added and the wine was very lightly filtered.