Life as a German Benedictine monk making wines in the Rheingau in 1775 was by all strokes of fortune great. After years of incredibly treacherous vintages ranging from too cool a climate for grapes to sufficiently ripen to pests that leave little wines to be made, the stars seemed to finally align this time and for once the wine growing year was completely ideal; the grapes were healthy, and in fact were of particularly high quality that year. As your grapes approach their perfect ripeness, you start to picture it all coming together nicely - after all, you have a reputation to protect, making wines under the renowned Schloss Johannisberg name, one that even American Presidents of the time can't get enough of!

And so you do what you do every year just before harvest - you snip off a small bunch of grapes and hand them over to the courier, whose job is to then ride over to the city of Fulda some 150 kilometers away, and pass the grapes over to the Prince Abbot who would then ceremonially taste the grapes and grant permission for harvest to proceed. You've done this every year, what more the fact that this year's fruit is better than ever, and after all this whole ritual is just ceremonial right? You've got this. The courier will be back in just a day or so, and you can move things along, it'll be as easy as your famed Rieslings. 

The Late Harvest Rider continues to be commemorated with a statue that stands at the Schloss Johannisberg estate.

Now as it turns out, that courier would end up going missing. Weeks would go by and your anxiousness was starting to grow. Whilst the other vineyards were well on their way to completing the harvest, your grapes were turning overripe and worse still some were even going bad! You find yourself so tempted to just go for it and start picking the grapes - who would even notice? And surely the Prince Abbot wouldn't want to miss out on this year's wines right? Not the least of which because of some probably errant courier! But no, without permission to start the harvest, you could get into big trouble here!

Alas, some four weeks had passed and the courier would finally show up! You ask him why he was so late, and the man could hardly get his foot out of his mouth! He claimed to have been attacked whilst enroute and barely survived, but you've also rumours that he had fallen into a lengthy tryst! Or maybe he got stuck at the bar again! Regardless, this Spätlesereiter (German for "Late Harvest Rider") was not going to get in the way of your work. Even though you were ready to completely write off the harvest, you quickly get to picking whatever was left - even the shrivelled and mouldy ones - and just make the best of what you've got. 

To your surprise, once the wines were made, it tasted like nectar! It was luscious, concentrated and aromatic, and with a depth that you've never experienced before! In honour of this fateful event, you thus decide to call this wine Spatlese or Late Harvest.

This would of course set off a 250 year love affair with sweet Rieslings that German wines would come to be renowned for and beloved by fans around the world - all because of a late courier and the gusto of the Benedictine monks who made the wines at Schloss Johannisberg!

Now of course German wines, Rieslings and of course Schloss Johannisberg are known for so much more, and we now also understand that the mould found on the fruit as a result of the late harvest was in fact the work of a very special event known affectionately as noble rot. Few places in the world feature climates that allow for botrytis mould to do its magical work of essentially sucking moisture out of the grapes and concentrating its sugars, which only happens when the weather is cold and rainy in the early mornings but warm and sunny through the mid-day leading up to the harvest. As the process became better understood, winegrowers would even play into the late harvest resulting in even more intense wines like the Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese (or TBA for short), which have together formed the German Prädikat System classification of wines.

Later in 1858, the estate would even also become the first in Germany to produce Eiswein (or Icewine, which defers from noble rot, being that the grapes are left on the vines to naturally freeze before being pressed and fermented), which remained incredibly rare given its only 6 occurrences in the 19th Century - once again the product of a freak event that took place at the Schloss Johannisberg!

Yet perhaps what is more incredible about these luscious wines is their ability to age for decades, if not beyond a century even! And so it is not a surprise then that in the winery where these Spatlese Late Harvest wines were first created, Schloss Johannisberg, that the legendary cult winery even has its own historic cellar, the Bibliotheca Subterranea, which holds wines that date as far back as 1748!

More recently, to celebrate 250 years since the discovery and making of Spatlese wines at this hallowed vineyard, Schloss Johannisberg has even created the Ex Bibliotheca Cuvee 100, which is an assemblage of Late Harvest Spatlese wines from 36 vintages ranging from 1915 to 2015! 

Yet for us to truly appreciate this historically critical pinnacle of German winemaking, we have to talk about the very grape in question - Riesling.

Riesling, known as the noblest of grapes in wine circles, is almost always cited by sommeliers when asked to pick a single wine that they'd have to bring to a deserted island - simply because it is inarguably the most versatile variety! Riesling can be made in countless styles from dry to decadently sweet (be it through ripening or fermentation), still to sparkling, and is incredibly terroir expressive and long lived, with the ability to age up to incredible periods as is seen with Schloss Johannisberg.

And so if you had to take a guess as to where the world's oldest Riesling vineyard in the world is - you guessed it, Schloss Johannisberg!

As it turns out, said Prince Abbot, who was party to the creation of the Spatlese (albeit unwittingly), had purchased the vineyard in 1716, at the time whilst predominantly planted with Riesling, had also small parcels of historic varietals such as Orleans, Elbling and Muscat, laid along the side of a hill with a monastery at the top. The vineyards whilst famous, had been rather ravaged by the battles wherein it was caught in the crossfire, and so the Prince Abbot would order for its reconstruction, with now a palace (hence Schloss which translates as "castle") designed in a grand Baroque style, and more importantly, the vineyards to be completely replanted with only Riesling (all 293,950 vines!), creating therefore the first ever Riesling monopole (which has stayed 100% Riesling since)! Thus with close to 320 years of continuous cultivating of the Riesling vines in Schloss Johannisberg, this single varietal single vineyard is therefore known as the home of Riesling, even as the varietal has since become internationally farmed.

What's even more astounding then is that even for this already historic vineyard, its history in fact stretches further back and as you might expect, is deeply intertwined with European nobility.

King Charlemagne came, saw and had some vines planted on Schloss Johannisberg.

The very creation of the Johannisberg vineyard is credited to the legendary king Charlemagne, who was said to have observed from his Ingelheim palace that the snow on the slopes of Johannisberg had melted earlier than any other of its surrounding hills, and would thus declare it to be a great place for vines. Upon his instruction, vines would be planted and would eventually be taken care of by generations of monks who had taken up refuge in the kloster (or monastery) at Johannisberg, so named after St John the Baptist ("Johannis" being John, and "berg" being Mountain). The earliest known official dating of the vineyard would nevertheless come from Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son, who had noted its location in 772, in relation to the local Abbey of Fulda, which means that the vineyards of Schloss Johannisberg have in fact been producing wines for over 1,200 years (with then close to 320 years of 100% Riesling production)!

"Stop your journey in Rüdesheim and at the Johannisberg monastery to examine the vineyards and wines there, the latter is the best produced on the Rhine, it is incomparable and costs about as much as the oldest Hochheimer. The 1775 vintage is the best" wrote US President Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1775, the year the estate discovered Spatlese.

One vineyard, many wines. The various styles (denoted by different coloured labels) come from different parts of the vineyard.

The vineyard would repeatedly change hands between nobility and the clergy over the course of the next 1,000 years (at one point gifted by Napoleon to his marshal) until we circle back to 1716 when the Prince Abbot (of Fulda) had the entire estate focused on Riesling, then at the time not a particularly well-known nor preferred varietal due to its finnicky and often inability to ripen. The Prince Abbot's was therefore treated with great skepticism with most folks at the time believing that focusing on a single varietal was essentially gambling the vintage. Yet of course, the arrival of the Spatlese would change all of that, and as winegrowing has become better understood, today single varietal vineyards are commonplace and even standard practice. Yet because Schloss Johannisberg had been at this for so long and was so ahead of its time, it would of course win over a who's who laundry list of fans - everyone from Beethoven, the composer, to US President Thomas Jefferson would write of how much they loved Johannisberg's wines! It was said that even George Washington would lament of how he could not afford Johannisberg's wines for they had become the most expensive wines in the world, even pricing out those from Bordeaux! 

The Johannisberg Riesling vines would become so highly sought after that cuttings were brought to all over the world, from Australia to South Africa and the USA. Till this day, the estate stands as legendary for its distinct focus on one of the world's most prized varietals, and was most recently named Best Vineyard in Europe in 2025 and 2nd overall in the World's Best Vineyards Awards.

As we approach the estate's modernity, as so much has happened in and around the fabled vineyards, it's worth noting that the palace at the top of the hill has had to be rebuilt repeatedly and today stands as a neoclassical palace that was a beacon for tourism to the Rhine for the better part of the 20th century. Today Schloss Johannisberg belongs to the Oetker family (the German maker of baking soda, cake mixes and frozen pizza), having been passed on from the last in the line of German royalty, the House of Metternich, who had for generations farmed the estate with great fondness for viticulture. The Oetker family had first entered the estate in 1974 and in 2006 would be fully entrusted with the estate by the late Princess Tatiana von Metternich.

Stepping into the vineyards, it's worth first noting that the Schloss Johannisberg estate was a founding member of the VDP, which is a quality assurance recognition that's granted to Germany's top producers who demonstrate an adherence to strict rules for winegrowing and winemaking, with only about 5% of German wines VDP qualified. 

 

The Schloss Johannisberg Riesling monopole.

 

With that in mind, the estate takes on a philosophy of working as naturally as possible in the vineyards, producing lowered yields and harvesting selectively by hand. The vineyards comprising of Riesling vines that are on average 25 years old, total fifty hectares planted hillside at a 45 degree slope, with the Johannisberg hill topping out at 182 meters above sea level. The soil here is characterised as mineral, concentrated with quartzite, stony loess and loam (unlike the Mosel's more typical slate soils) that comes with good drainage, and uniquely faces south which allows for significant sunshine in a region that is otherwise much milder, therefore allowing for sufficient ripeness to be achieved. The estate is further bolstered in terms of climate as it sits directly on the 50 degree parallel (the northern limit for viticulture; anything further up north is typically deemed unfavourable for winegrowing) which allows for the largest difference between daytime and night-time temperature swings, which promotes the development of aromatic and flavour intensity in the fruit. Due to the favourability of the microclimate here, figs, almonds and lemons too can be found around the estate. As the winery is a monopole - that is a single owner of a single vineyard that spans its own region - Schloss Johannisberg is legally allowed to use the vineyard name on the bottle label without a place name.

Having mastered the craft of making Rieslings along the Pradikat tiers (from Dry / Trocken all the way to Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein and even TBA - a sheer feat and rarity for any vineyard!), harvest of this sole vineyard takes place in phases, allowing for the fruit to achieve varying degrees of ripeness, before they are then vinified into numerous styles. After hand harvesting, the fruit is whole cluster pressed and fermented slow and cool with native yeasts, with some in stainless steel tanks and others in large oak barrels. The estate further amplifies its regionality through the use of native oak (emphasised as critical to shaping the estate's wines with is unique grain texture) harvested from a forest at the top of the Taunus mountains just three hundred hectares to the north of Schloss Johannisberg - the same forests that protect the vineyards from chillingly cold winds (whilst the Rhine sits across the estate reflecting light and retaining heat to the vineyards).

 

"Acidity is the energy. Sweetness only makes the energy drinkable."

Stefan Doktor, Schloss Johannisberg's winemaker and avid bobsledder.

 

 

Ultimately the estate describes itself as being something of a Riesling research archive and a terroir laboratory given that it is able to produce such wide ranging styles of wines all from a single vineyard for over hundreds of years, pulling on the various levers of ripeness at harvest (and hence varying harvesting times) and fermentation (with different levels of dryness and residual sugars left over). As such, the estate 's goal is to allow for each of its wines to exhibit its own personality and interpretation of the terroir even as they all originate from the same vineyard. The estate also employs the use of vine-mapping which allows the estate to identify unique traits of every grape produced in the vineyard, further empowering precision in its winemaking and the creating of unique wine profiles.

 

 

Given the wide array of Riesling styles produced at Schloss Johannisberg, in a time long before coloured labels, it was its aristocratic owner Fürst von Metternich who would in 1820 introduce the use of various coloured seals (with the "-lack" suffix to mean "paint" in German, referring to the various coloured paint used for the seals) to distinguishing which wines were which. And thus through the use of these coloured (or "painted") seals, the wines could be easily identified by both ripeness, style and quality. Many of these wines would thus go on to rest in the historic 900 year old cellars of Schloss Johannisberg, the Bibliotheca Subterranea, which is dug 10 meters deep into the hill, providing these long lived wines (many of which have spent the better part of half a century in these cellars) the ideal conditions to age. The cellar currently holds 25,000 wines, with the oldest dated back to 1748!

 

 

This week, we had a special opportunity to sit down with the Doktor himself to hear about production at Schloss Johannisberg, and to experience an incredible tasting across much of the winery's famous "-lack" ladder, including the rare and commemorative Ex Bibliotheca Cuvee 100. 

This iconic wine is available in Singapore from 1855 The Bottle Shop!

No without further ado, let's go!

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Gelblack Trocken Riesling

From the 2023 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Pale straw.

Aroma: Bright and fresh, carried by a vibrant acidity and orchard-fruit clarity. The wine opens slightly shy, which I attribute to its youth, but it quickly reveals focused notes of gooseberries, citrus peels, green apples and a light suggestion of Saturn peaches that sits just behind the sharper orchard notes, with honey and honeysuckles. There’s a clear mineral line running through the aroma from start to finish; a wet rocks and oceanic character that reminds me of oysters. Some tertiary notes of subtle lanolin, some mild animalic nuance. 

Taste: Light to moderate in weight and driven mainly by a fresh and precise acidity that feels deliberate, with crystalline and clean fruit. Opens with green apples, lemon candy and crisp lemonade. Acidity holds everything together while the wine moves and shifts from fruits toward a drier, almost zesty karakuchi-like nip on the tip of the tongue. It’s a pleasantly firm citric edge to the otherwise juicy orchard fruit profile. 

Finish: Medium length, clean and firmly mineral. A soft breadiness and a hint of bruised apples, woven into slate-like minerality and the taste of wet rocks. More lemon peel shavings comes through. 

My Thoughts

This Gelblack feels like a crisp lemonade blended with high-quality mineral water - straightforward, bright and cleansing with a decent structure. It shows some intensive fruit purity with a direct and focused acidity. I find the overall impression very accessible without feeling simple. The combination of citrus, orchard fruit and linear minerality, while there’s already some interesting tertiary notes of light lanolin and mild animalic nuance.

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Silberlack Trocken Riesling Großes Gewächs (GG)

From the 2022 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Lemon.

Aroma: Impressively layered, with very noticeable phenolic presence and deeper tertiary notes, more complexity and a just slightly sweeter, more decadent aroma compared to the Gelblack. Immediately you find distinct creaminess right away along with citrus peel and white flowers, then a suggestion of almond biscotti and lemon cake coming from the subtle oak influence. Fruit leans toward gooseberries and skinned red apples, and there is a touch of flinty minerality edge. 

Taste: A rounded texture, clearly more fruit concentration and everything here comes across as denser and more complete. Opens with gooseberries and citrus alongside green and slightly oxidative apple notes. There is a creamy element that reminds me faintly of Camembert cheese and white cream, and I also get a light hint of champignon mushroom. The acidity remains precise and integrated into the body. 

Finish: Long and sustained, with very soft, creamy, milky acidity that leaves an impression of almond and other nutty tones. The creamy texture carries through as the flavours faded.

My Thoughts

This wine is accessible but still takes itself quite seriously. It’s dense and refined, markedly more complex and rich than the Gelblack. The phenolic texture, the light oak-derived creaminess and nuttiness adds another dimension without making the wine feel too heavy, and it’s really gourmand and would pair well with richer dishes, and yet has a depth of flavour that could help this stand on its own without a main course. The soft creamy acidity was also an unexpected pleasure I didn’t expect in a dry Riesling of this vintage.

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Rotlack Kabinett Riesling

From the 2023 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Pale straw.

Aroma: Clean and energetic, defined by freshness and acidity once again, with orchard- and citrus-driven fruit. Opens with ripe yuzu, lemon and lime peel at the forefront. Some lemongrass and some slightly savoury fresh herbs, and then a clear mineral tone beneath everything with some flinty, stony notes. 

Taste: Slightly weightier than I usually expect from a Kabinett, and there is a good amount of depth and tension. Fruit leans into intense stone fruits, and the acidity matches that intensity and provides some structure. By mid-palate there’s a savoury, meaty herb component that reminds me of ham seasoned with herbs, along with a gentle olive oil richness and something like salted focaccia. 

Finish: Long and driven by minerality, with a clear carry-over of fruit and lively acidity. Some soft grapefruit, along with a light yeastiness and creaminess that smooth out the sharper edges and stretches the finish further. 

My Thoughts

This Kabinett has a richer texture and more density than one may normally associate with the style. It’s got a lively and racy character with that combination of citrus and stone fruit, while the savoury meaty-herbal notes that sit alongside definitely add a very welcomed complexity. 

think it has the potential to age further due to its tension and slightly weightier palate, although its sweetness and acidity that sit together comfortably make this already really easy to drink now.

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Grünlack Spätlese Riesling

From the 2022 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Lemon with a gold hue. 

Aroma: Ripe, concentrated and fruit-driven, without feeling heavy. It opens immediately fragrant with fleshy stone fruits, overripe apricots and white peaches. I pick up a light lanolin note and just a touch of kerosene that sits behind the fruit. Some slightly dried tones of dried apricot, and there is a faint impression of wet rocks. 

Taste: Juicy with a balanced acidity that keeps sweetness in check while keeping the mouthfeel lively. Opens really fleshy, with flavours of white peach, fresh apricot, Granny Smith apple, fresh pineapple along with lime and lemon peels, and there are small hints of white tropical fruit without it becoming dense or sticky. A fresh green herb character threads through the mid-palate along with mineral water.

Finish: The mineral thread runs through to the finish and keeps everything focused. Light yeastiness, breadiness and a touch of kerosene that links back to the aroma. Stone fruit sweetness and acidity are equally present, without either dominating. 

My Thoughts

This Spätlese is really fleshy and aromatic! Stone fruit concentration defines the wine from nose to finish but with balanced and present acidity giving it vibrance and brightness. The richness from the ripe fruit is held in check by the fine acidic structure and minerality,  so the wine stays quite elegant. The small hint of TDN/kerosene adds another layer without overwhelming the profile, and its presence on both the aroma and finish suggests that it could develop beautiful complexity with some age.

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Ex Bibliotheca Cuvée 100 Spätlese (multi-vintage blend)

This is a cuvee of 36 vintages including 1915, 1921, 1937, 1943, 1945, 1953, 1959, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1985, 1992, 1993, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2015!

Tasting Notes

Colour: Lager-gold.

Aroma: Really expressive and complex, with a clear mix of maturity and sweetness. Opens really perfumed, almost like a lemongrass diffuser, along with wax and chamomile that reminds me of a honey lemon drink, Chinese pear soup and a whiff of old library book that leads the nose down an earthy, slightly musty or cedar-like character. 

Taste: Starts off ripe and luscious with lychees, dried mango and dried apricots. , Fleshy stone fruits begin to form the core just as we get a slight savoury twist with very mild mustiness, Camembert-like savouriness and a faint morel mushroom tone. A light petrol or kerosene note is present, along with mildly bitter dried herbs and camomile tea-like flavours. There’s a lot going on, but the wine retains a crisp structure, with just a touch of lemon and wet stones providing lift and structure.

Finish: Long, evocative, with soft grassy and herbaceous notes that fade gradually. Minerality stays present throughout, alongside gentle yeastiness and creaminess. There is a touch of saffron and citrus at the very end.

My Thoughts

Really engaging from start to finish! This blended vintage Spätlese shows the complexities that come with age–dried fruit, light mustiness and cedar-like tones–along with ripe sweetness that seems to have a touch of botrytis that contributes to the deeper honeyed elements, and then a palate with tons of nuance with those herbal, tea-like, and slight petrol notes.  

The combination of ripe sweetness and crisp acidity keeps the wine accessible, and the structure makes it feel complete rather than heavy. I think it would impress people who love older Rieslings, but it is still easy to appreciate even without that experience thanks to the inviting balance of clear fruits, acidity and minerality.

Wine Review: Schloss Johannisberg Rosalack Auslese Riesling

From the 2018 vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Lemon with a gold hue.

Aroma: Very exotic and expressive! Opens floral and spiced, with wildflower honey at the core. I notice a distinct lager-like Saaz hops character, along with a distinct persistent Belgian witbier aroma: with coriander seed, cloves and fresh orange peels and camomile tea. The air feels clean and bright, with just-as-present minerality and floral delicacy.

Taste: Really seamless with an impressive fruit concentration and a rich texture. Lush honeyed stone fruits and Chinese red date soup still balanced out by citrus pulp. Acidity and clear minerality gathers a bit more strength by the mid-palate and prevents the sweetness from getting too cloying. 

Finish: Long and exotic once again. Some green grape skins, and then a spiced reminder of coriander seeds and orange peels that hold the aftertaste. 

My Thoughts

This is a really playful and evocative Auslese, with a refreshing citrus-driven lift and lovely exotic notes from the kitchen spice rack along side those floral, tea-like notes, and a clean acidity that keeps it from feeling overly dessert-like. I think this one’s really suited for the festivities – wedding cakes and Christmas desserts, anyone?

P.s.: These iconic wines are available in Singapore from 1855 The Bottle Shop.

@CharsiuCharlie