Weissburgunder, Mittelrhein, Toni Jost 2021

This family estate is run by Peter Jost, who took over from his father Toni in 1975. He chose to continue the company in his father’s name, although previously it had been renamed as each generation of the family took the reins. Peter was joined by his daughter Cecilia in 2009, making her the sixth generation of the family to be involved, and the estate continues to go from strength to strength.

It is based in Bacharach, in the south of the MittelRhein region, and the family has been growing grapes here for 180 years. Peter and Cecilia currently own 15 hectares of vines, which include most of the outstanding Hahn vineyard on the banks of the Rhine, with its steep slopes of dark slate soil. It is mostly planted with riesling, but there is also some spätburgunder closer to the bottom of the vineyard, as well as small amounts of weißburgunder and dunkelfelder. It is protected from the wind by the surrounding hills and the river reflects and intensifies the sun’s rays.

Around a third of the vines lie in the Rheingau region at Wallufer Walkenberg, an outstanding site which is protected from the wind by Taunus mountains and has rich, loamy soils to which riesling responds particularly well.

The Jost family is passionate about preserving the environment, and as such produces smaller yields of grapes and doesn’t use any pesticides. The team begins the harvest as late possible and does several selective pickings to ensure that the fruit is harvested at the optimum moment.

The grapes are fermented slowly at cool temperatures, either in stainless-steel tanks or wooden casks, and the spätburgunder spends 12 to 15 months maturing in barrels.