Weingut Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken

Production

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More about Weingut Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken

Status Operational
Established: Not supplied
Visitor Policy: Not generally accessible
Tel: +49 6581 2456
Website: http://www.zilliken-vdp.de
Officially ‘Weingut Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken’ but better known simply as ‘Zilliken’, this is one of the most famous and regarded wineries in Germany. It is run by Hans-Joachim ‘Hanno’ Zilliken with his wife Ruth, daughter Dorothy and her husband, representing the family’s 10th and 11th generations of winemakers. When you meet the family their passion for winemaking and their family’s heritage is overwhelming. They are very much hands-on, running the estate with just one full-time and two part-time workers.

Address

Heckingstraße 20
Saarburg
54439
Germany

Harvesting of the grapes normally starts in mid October and is by hand, partly due to machines struggling to operate on the extremely steep slopes, but mostly due to the degree of selection and sorting hand-picking allows.

The majority of grapes are gently pressed with 1.5 to 1.8 bar using a Pheunatic bladder press batch by batch with different vineyards and degrees of ripeness stored and handled separately. The degree of sorting is such that some small batches of just a few baskets of grapes are hand-pressed.

Zilliken is one of the last ten estates in the Mosel region to barrel ferment their wines in moselfuder casks, and most of these only use wooden casks for their best wines with the majority fermented in stainless steel. Zilliken ferment all their wines in moselfuder casks, mostly naturally with wild yeast. Some of the juice from casks that have started to ferment is added to those that fail to spontaneously ferment and if this does not start fermentation, then as a last resort, cultured yeast is used.

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The family maintain that these traditional 1,000 litre casks made from German oak produce far superior Riesling wines than can be achieved using stainless steel tanks. There is only one person left Germany making these casks and there’s a three year waiting list for new ones. Most of the 50 casks in Zilliken’s cellar are 50 - 60 years old.

The cellar is cold, constantly around 11°C/52°C, and very humid, between 55% and 95% with water dripping form stalactites on the ceiling. As you descend the staircase from the modern, clean, crisp white walled building above, down into the cellars, you can feel the air changing and the temperature dropping with every step down. The walls are covered in a black cotton wool-like fungus called Zasmidium cellare and this is very desirable in a wine cellar as it cleans the air as it breaths. Indeed, the air in the cellar smells fresh rather than mouldy, despite the damp.

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These conditions are perfect for the wine and ensure a very slow two-month long cool fermentation, allowing maximum development of aromas. The wooden casks seem to round the acidity and also allow the wine to breath. The wine stays in the casks from October until March/April. The disadvantage of these traditional casks is the difficulty in cleaning them, all 50 casks, by hand, one at a time using steam in readiness for the next season.

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Another area of the cellar is racked with the family’s library of old vintage bottles, the oldest dating back to 1965. Zilliken’s Rieslings age very well, particularly those with higher levels of sugar and acidity. The aging process reduces the wines sweetness, rounding the wines making them medium dry or dry and better with food.

Zilliken only produce Rieslings as the soil is best suited to growing this variety. The family’s Saarburger Rausch vineyard is one of the most renowned on the Saar with 27.5 acres, of steeply sloping, south facing, grand cru vineyards on Diabas-Slate soil, giving an average 50 hl/ha yield. All the wines produced are VDP. The family don’t buy in any juice or must, all the production is from their own vineyards.

Normally Zilliken produce around 70,000 litres depending on the vintage, 2013 was very small with only 24,000 litres but all the years between 2000 and 2013 were great vintages. Zilliken’s wines are never too dry and are noted for their lightness and elegance.

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