2024 Gunderloch Rothenberg Riesling GG | 97 Points James Suckling

A monumental dry Riesling from one of Germany’s great Grand Cru vineyards

The crown jewel of Gunderloch and the Roter Hang — powerful, crystalline, mineral and built for decades.

97 Points – JamesSuckling.com | 97 Points - Vinous | 96+ Points – Falstaff | 96 Points The Wine Advocate 

Rheinhessen, Germany | Nackenheimer Rothenberg VDP.GROSSE LAGE | RRP $165 | Riesling GG | Organic | Powerful • Mineral • Profound • Ageworthy

“Extraordinary dry Riesling from the blood-red slate of Rothenberg — immense concentration, crystalline acidity and profound mineral intensity wrapped in remarkable elegance.”

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Brilliant pale yellow with green-gold reflections — youthful, luminous and incredibly vibrant.

Aroma: Deep and beautifully complex, opening with white peach, vineyard peach, orange and ripe citrus, followed by crushed rock, herbs, pepper and subtle smoky notes.

There's an unmistakable stony character here.

You can almost smell the Rothenberg.

With air, the wine becomes increasingly complex, revealing citrus peel, savoury herbs, flint and the distinctive mineral character of the vineyard's iron-rich red slate.

Palate: This is serious.

Concentrated and powerful, yet remarkably elegant.

White peach and citrus flow into a beautifully structured palate driven by straight, crystalline acidity and incredibly fine phenolics.

There's real density through the middle, but nothing feels heavy.

Power without weight.

Concentration without heaviness.

Ripeness without losing freshness.

And underneath everything is that incredible mineral backbone.

Finish: Exceptionally long, dry and penetrating, with citrus, herbs, pepper, stone and a wonderful saline quality lingering seemingly forever.

This is Grand Cru Riesling.

Critical Acclaim

97 Points – JamesSuckling.com

James Suckling's team found an extremely youthful yet wonderfully elegant and refined 2024 Rothenberg, with tremendous concentration and a remarkably delicate finish.

This is the fascinating thing about the wine.

It has enormous intensity without feeling enormous.

There's power.

There's fruit.

There's concentration.

But everything remains finely etched and incredibly precise.

97 POINTS.

And serious ageing potential.

96+ Points – Falstaff

Falstaff's Ulrich Sautter found a beautifully layered aromatic profile of:

Orange

Vineyard peach

Rock dust

Balsamic herbs

Smoke

Pepper

before describing the palate as finely built and athletic, balancing power with elegance.

The acidity is straight and driving.

The wine is dense.

The finish is long.

And Falstaff's assessment of its future is particularly exciting:

BUILT FOR DECADES.

This is not simply a Riesling to drink over the next couple of years.

This is cellar material.

Rothenberg – The Crown Jewel

The vineyard is what takes this wine into another league.

NACKENHEIMER ROTHENBERG.

Rothenberg is one of the greatest vineyard sites of the Roter Hang — the extraordinary red slope rising dramatically above the Rhine between Nackenheim and Nierstein.

And for Gunderloch:

This is the crown jewel.

The estate controls such a significant portion of Rothenberg that the vineyard is effectively a near-monopole for Gunderloch.

This is their home territory.

Their signature vineyard.

Their greatest dry Riesling.

The Blood-Red Slate of the Roter Hang

Rothenberg is unlike almost anywhere else.

The soil is immediately recognisable:

DEEP RED, IRON-RICH SLATE.

The colour comes from iron oxide within the ancient weathered rock.

The steep vineyard plunges toward the Rhine, creating a dramatic landscape where Riesling vines struggle in lean, rocky soils.

And that struggle is important.

The vines send their roots deep into fractured rock searching for water and nutrients.

Yields are naturally restricted.

Fruit becomes intensely concentrated.

Yet the proximity of the Rhine and the vineyard's exposure help create a remarkable balance between ripeness and freshness.

The resulting Rieslings can have an extraordinary combination of:

Stone fruit

Citrus

Savoury herbs

Pepper & spice

Smoke & flint

Iron-rich minerality

Salinity

Crystalline acidity

This is Riesling with a profound sense of place.

VDP.GROSSE LAGE – Germany's Grand Cru

This isn't simply a single-vineyard Riesling.

Rothenberg carries the classification:

VDP.GROSSE LAGE

The highest vineyard classification used by Germany's prestigious VDP association.

Think of it as Germany's equivalent of:

GRAND CRU.

And when a dry wine from one of these vineyards meets the strict requirements of the VDP, it can carry another famous designation:

GROSSES GEWÄCHS — GG.

These are the flagship dry wines from Germany's greatest vineyard sites.

Low yields.

Selective harvesting.

Top vineyard parcels.

Dry.

Serious.

And built to age.

This is the top of the pyramid.

The 2024 Rothenberg

The technical details make this wine even more fascinating.

The 2024 sits at just:

12% ALCOHOL

And only around:

1g/L RESIDUAL SUGAR.

In other words:

Bone dry.

That matters because there's nowhere for the wine to hide.

No sweetness.

No excessive alcohol.

No heaviness.

It's all about:

Fruit. Acidity. Vineyard. Mineral structure.

Falstaff records the wine as organically produced and matured for approximately:

10 MONTHS IN LARGE OAK CASKS.

The large-format oak isn't there to make the wine taste woody.

It's about allowing Riesling to develop texture and complexity while preserving the character of Rothenberg.

Serious Winemaking

Gunderloch takes the GG selection incredibly seriously.

Fruit comes from multiple carefully selected parcels within Rothenberg, with vines reaching approximately 40 years of age.

The parcels are harvested and vinified separately.

The grapes receive skin contact before gentle pressing.

The juice then goes into large barrels without clarification and undergoes:

SPONTANEOUS FERMENTATION.

No recipe.

No attempt to manufacture a flavour.

The objective is simply:

ROTHENBERG.

Fermentation continues until the wine is completely dry.

The result is one of the purest expressions of the Roter Hang in the Gunderloch cellar.

Gunderloch – A Historic German Riesling Estate

Gunderloch isn't a new name chasing the Riesling boom.

The estate was founded by:

CARL GUNDERLOCH IN 1890.

And Carl Gunderloch later became one of the founding members of the:

VDP.

Today, sixth-generation winemaker Johannes Hasselbach leads the estate.

Under Johannes, Gunderloch has continued to focus increasingly on organic farming, individual vineyard expression and producing wines that transparently communicate the extraordinary geology of the Roter Hang.

And at the top of everything sits:

ROTHENBERG GG.

The Scores Don't Stop There

This is one seriously acclaimed Riesling.

Alongside:

97 Points – JamesSuckling.com

and

96+ Points – Falstaff

the 2024 Rothenberg has also received:

97 Points – Vinous

96 Points – Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Vinous describes an incredibly dynamic wine built around flint, red apple, tangerine, peppery herbs and a beautifully salty finish.

Wine Advocate focuses on the intense Riesling fruit, iron-rich weathered slate, lemon, salt and crystalline acidity.

Four major critics sitting between 96 and 97 points.

That's serious consensus.

Drink Now or Cellar?

You can drink it.

But I'd be very tempted to cellar it.

This wine has decades ahead of it.

Right now, you're seeing the youthful energy:

Peach

Citrus

Orange

Flint

Herbs

Stone

Salt

But mature dry Riesling from great vineyards can become extraordinarily complex.

Over time expect the fruit to move toward:

Preserved citrus

Dried apricot

Honey

Smoke

Herbs

Spice

Mineral complexity

while the acidity keeps everything alive.

Falstaff specifically sees decades of development ahead.

Buy one to drink.

Buy another two for the cellar.

Food Pairings

This deserves serious food.

Try it with:

• Grilled lobster
• Roast kingfish
• Scallops
• Turbot or John Dory
• Roast chicken
• Pork with crackling
• Wiener Schnitzel
• Veal
• Duck with citrus
• Japanese seafood
• Mature Comté

But there's another option.

Open it by itself.

Use a big glass.

Don't serve it too cold.

And give it time.

This is the sort of Riesling that can change dramatically over several hours.

Why We Love It

This is where German Riesling gets very serious.

You're getting:

Rheinhessen

Roter Hang

Nackenheimer Rothenberg

VDP.GROSSE LAGE

Grosses Gewächs

Organic viticulture

Iron-rich red slate

Spontaneous fermentation

Large-format oak

Just 12% alcohol

97 Points – JamesSuckling.com

97 Points – Vinous

96 Points – Wine Advocate

96+ Points – Falstaff

And:

RRP $165.

Compare that with what the greatest vineyard-designated dry Rieslings from Germany now command.

Or top white Burgundy.

Or Grand Cru-level Chardonnay from anywhere in the world.

Suddenly $165 doesn't look remotely excessive.

This is one of the flagship wines of a historic German estate from one of the greatest vineyards on the Roter Hang.

2024 GUNDERLOCH ROTHENBERG GROSSES GEWÄCHS RIESLING

Nackenheimer Rothenberg VDP.GROSSE LAGE

Rheinhessen, Germany

97 Points – JamesSuckling.com

96+ Points – Falstaff

97 Points – Vinous | 96 Points – Wine Advocate

RRP $165

Grand Cru vineyard.

Blood-red slate.

Organic.

Bone dry.

12% alcohol.

97 points.

Built for decades.

This is not simply great German Riesling.

This is one of Germany's great dry white wines.

The 2024 Gunderloch Rothenberg Grosses Gewächs Riesling combines extraordinary concentration with an almost impossible sense of precision and lightness.

Powerful.

Crystalline.

Saline.

Mineral.

And incredibly long.

If you want to see just how profound dry Riesling can be, Rothenberg GG is exactly where you should be looking.

97 Points. Grand Cru. RRP $165.

An extraordinary bottle from one of the great Riesling vineyards of Germany.