We probably first heard Max Kilburg’s name when he worked with Julian Haart a few years ago. They live only a few minutes from each other, in neighboring villages, and are both among the most consequential owners of the top vineyards of Piesport (Goldtröpfchen) and Wintrich (Ohligsberg). Some time after this, it was made official that Max would take over his family’s historic estate, Geierslay, as the 20th-generation winemaker. Then, in the spring of 2020, deep in quarantine, we read about a unique solo-project of Max’s. He had acquired a few old-vine parcels and was bottling these wines under his own line, provocatively titled “Max Kilburg.” In total, this project included just over one hectare’s worth of vines. Tiny. Then we tasted the wines, our heads exploded… and with the 2021 vintage, the wines exploded into the market. The few cases we got disappeared quickly and bottles that sold for $30 retail ended up on Winebid for $100, which was all a bit nuts.
But behind all this drama, we were spending more time with Max and beginning to appreciate the layers of the Mosel – the tapestry of great farmers, most of whom just don’t have enough vineyards, enough time, or enough money or access to really bottle their own wines and sell them in the international market. Bear with me: I am trying to make a very complex story… simple. I am really proud of Max’s “Vertigo” bottling – of our bottling – and I want to do it justice.
The sad truth is that most of these growers basically have to sell to the one or two of the largest cooperatives of the Mosel; there is just no other market for these grapes and wines. As such, the cooperatives have all the leverage and they depress the prices of these grapes and wines. Just as sad, some very serious terroir – in many cases historic plots with very old vines – are just blended into oblivion, mixed in 20,000-liter tanks with flatland vineyards, with young-vine vineyards, with anything and everything. The origin, the identity, is gone.
The other sad truth is that the great majority of inexpensive Mosel Rieslings one sees on the market are made from these cooperatives. You can basically dial-up the wine you want. How much acid do you want? How much residual sugar? All one has to do is design a label and decide how many hundreds of cases you want. It is easy. It is efficient. It is also soulless and stupefying.
So we talked with Max about the possibility of working with him and a number of the other older grape-growers of his home-village of Wintrich – a “Grand Cru” place with legendary sites like Ohligsberg (finally made very famous by Julian Haart) and Geierslay. Max is the 20th-generation winemaker at his family’s estate; suffice it to say they know all the growers in their village. And Max agreed to the project, which goes a little like this: Max selects a number of barrels from his own cellar for the project. Then, depending on the quantities he has in his cellar and the quantities we need, Max can go to a few other growers around the village – all of them in Wintrich – and select casks from them he likes, to honor their work, to honor the village.
The good news is we can produce a decent amount of this. The bad news (and good news?) is that it’s not unlimited; this is a small, humble project that we hope supports the village and its growers.
None of this is particularly difficult; it’s just putting in the time. It’s just caring enough to put in the time. Thus, “Vertigo” is really a serious (serious) village-level wine from Wintrich (an Ortswein in the VDP parlance) partly made and totally blended by Max, and sourced from his cellar and the quality grape-growers and winemakers of Wintrich. We hope in the future to be able to list the names of the growers on the label, to give them credit and recognition. In the end, I have been shocked by how good this wine is.
The goal was just to make an affordable, ultra-crisp, off-dry Mosel Riesling that supports the village and its growers as a collective. I’ve been overwhelmed by how serious and how delicious it is. Based on the responses, it seems you have too?
