Wilhelm Weil This is Me

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1. 1. German Wine Information Bureau USA - GermanWineUSA.org

   www.germanwines.org/exwnews981 - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/13/2001   Last Visited: 12/16/2004

   "Wilhelm Weil
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   The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland declared the 35-year-old Weil, director of Weingut Robert Weil in the Rheingau hill town of Kiedrich, Germany's 1997 winemaker of the year.
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   In addition, the prestigious magazine "Alles über Wein" (All About Wine) named Weil's 1991 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese wine of the year in 1992, pronounced him Rheingau discovery of the year in 1993, and the region's No. 1 winemaker in 1994, 1996 and 1997.
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   Good news about German wines takes a slow boat here; the boat, however, has docked and unloaded Weil's simply wonderful 1997s "our best vintage since '71," even exceeding "the great '96 vintage," Weil said. The elegant '96s came from ripe, healthy grapes, he said. But "the '97s had an absolutely higher ripeness than the '96s."
   
   I asked Weil if '97 was his vintage of the century. "It's too early to tell," he replied. "You need five, ten, fifteen years to tell how good a vintage is. For now, '96 and '97 are unquestionably two of our ten greatest vintages. The others are '11, '21, '34, '45, '47, '49, '53 and '71." On a beastly Manhattan evening in July, when a Riesling (or two or three) would be a welcome oasis, it was a treat to find Weil's 1997 Trocken (dry) Riesling Q.B.A. (at a hefty $8) heading the white wine category on the wines-by-the-glass list at Union Pacific; the inventive and delicious cuisine served at the young three-star restaurant is perhaps suggested by the popularity of its tasting menu of "21 little dishes" ($135).
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   An investment program that Wilhelm Weil puts at $16 million, $10 million from Suntory plus $6 million in credits negotiated by the winery, clicked into action. Everything has been refurbished: the vineyards, cellars and striking half-timbered 19th-century manor house that could be the setting for a Thomas Mann family business novel.
   
   Under Suntory's cash infusion, and Weil's day-to-day management, Weingut Robert Weil named for Wilhelm's great-grandfather who founded it in 1870 has expanded the vineyards it owns and leases from about 45 to 136 acres, making it one of the large Rheingau growers. "We have a demand for twice our production," Weil said. Eighty-five percent of the total is sold in Germany, and the rest is exported. "Thirty percent exports is our goal, and we hope to reach it in four or five years."
   
   Output has risen from 25,000 cases in 1992 to 35,000 in 1997, with an average of 31,000 expected temporarily. How is growth to be achieved? "Our goal is to buy or rent, in the long-term, only the absolutely top vineyards," Weil said. "But we will not compromise quality. It is not our goal to increase harvest quantity per hectare: We would like to keep it to an average of 50 to 53 hectoliters per hectare." This translates to 555 to 588.3 cases per 2.5 acres; some higher-volume, lower-quality producers push for nearly twice those quantities.
   
   Weil, who took over as the fourth-generation director in 1992, says the estate owns about 80 percent, including the best sections, of the splendid 27.2-acre Kiedrich Gräfenberg a high-altitude, slate-based, southwest-facing vineyard, as well as the heart of the slightly lesser Wasseros and Sandgrub vineyards. The Gräfenberg may well become perceived as the equal of the Erbacher Marcobrunn, arguably the Rheingau's finest vineyard. Catering to Anglo, not Saxon, grammar, Weil discarded the traditional adjectival suffix "er" from the name on his label; a less innovative vintner would call the vineyard Kiedricher Gräfenberg. But "Kiedricher makes no sense foreigners can't find it on the map," Weil said.
   
   The vines on the organically oriented estate 97 percent Riesling and 3 percent Spätburgunder (pinot noir) range from 1 to 40 years old, with 20 the average age. Small replantings take place yearly. Weil is usually among the last producers to harvest the grapes in the Rheingau. "We usually start in mid-October and never finish before Christmas," he said. The '96 picking ended on December 27; the '97 picking on January 28, 1998, for Eiswein. "We make a very strong selection of grapes in the vineyards. This means we may go into them about 20 times." Astonishingly, every year since 1989, Weil has produced wines on each rung of ripeness from basic qualitätswein up through Trockenbeerenauslese. The fruit is processed in a magnificent cellar that is an art gallery of technology. To retain the character of the vineyards and grapes, all fermentation at low temperatures and stretching from 8 to 20 weeks occurs in stainless steel tanks, a medium which does not influence the character of the wines. Small-lot fermentations in some of Weil's 200-plus tanks help preserve the personalities of selected vineyard blocks. Natural or commercial yeasts come into play, depending on the vintage. "We prefer the wine to develop in the bottle," Weil added, but in down years, like 1984 and 1987, which were beset by relatively unripe grapes with high acids, old wooden casks were used to round out the wines.
   
   Consumers sometimes get a bonus: declassified wines. For example, under the 1971 German law a wine might qualify as an auslese, and could be priced accordingly, but if it fails to meet Weil's more rigorous definition of the category it will be sold as a less expensive Spätlese. Weil's experience dates back, first, to boyhood days spent helping his father; next, to hands-on field and cellar work around Germany from 1980-82; and finally, to winemaking and business administration studies at Geisenheim, Germany's leading wine academy. He entered the family firm after graduation in 1987. His wife, Martina, manages the estate and sales.
   
   Weingut Robert Weil's distinctive baby blue label, framed in a gilded, lacy leaves-and-clusters motif, symbolizes blue-chip quality and, no surprise, high prices. Ten 1997s, to be found in 22 states, range from the importer's recommended retail prices of $17 for the estate Riesling to $260 for a half bottle of Eiswein; the 1,000-plus cases are being allocated to leading restaurants and wine shops.
   
   Weil says that Suntory has given him first refusal on the business, that he hopes to re-buy it little by little, and that it registered its first profit under the new ownership in 1997. Time, past and future, may well be on his side. While deepening his stake in building 21st-century earnings, Weil is in effect turning back the clock to the epoch surrounding the turn of the century "the glorious days of top Riesling," he said when the famed Weil wines cost Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria and the Austrian and Russian courts more money than Bordeaux first growths.
   
   For today's democrats, Weil's fin de siecle 1997s cost considerably less than some highly touted, but less interesting, white Burgundies. In fact, compared with such wines, Weil's are significantly underpriced.

2. 2. www.thewineman.com

   www.thewineman.com/Germn_merg. - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/2/1999   Last Visited: 3/18/2007

   In the March 24, 1999 merger meeting, the joint association also named Wilhelm Weil, of Weingut Robert Weil, chairman of the new group. Weil's leadership is supported by an executive board which includes Baron zu Knyphausen (Weingut Freiherr zu Knyphausen), Stefan Ress (Weingut Balthasar Ress), and Johannes Eser (Weingut Johanni shot).

3. 3. www.rudiwiest.com

   www.rudiwiest.com/estates/test - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/12/2008   Last Visited: 6/9/2008

   Today the estate is managed by Wilhelm Weil.After forming the partnership with Suntory, Wilhelm Weil immediately established a game plan for success, which in two short years vaulted the estate atop the Rheingau elite.
   
   In the August 1993 issue of "Alles über Wein", Germany's leading wine publication, the 1992 Weil wines placed first amongst all Rheingau estates.The "Gault Millau Wine Guide" rates the Weil estate as one of the top five estates in all of Germany, and voted Wilhelm Weil as the 1997 wine maker of the year.Over one hundred years ago Weil's Kiedricher Rieslings were favorites at Queen Victoria's Court.In 1900, The Court of Austria purchased 800 bottles, which at the time sold for the astonishing price of sixteen Goldmarks per bottle.Emperor Wilhelm II, who was quite wine knowledgeable, was a big fan of the Kiedricher Rieslings from Weil.
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   A retrospective of a century of Robert Weil wines was recently conducted by Wilhelm Weil.Starting with the 1893 Kiedricher Berg Auslese and ending with the grandiose 1992 Kiedricher Gräfenberg TBA.
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   The following is an outline of Wilhelm Weil's game plan for success:
   
   1) Great care is taken in the maintenance of the vineyards.Fertilizer is applied if and only if soil analysis points to mineral imbalances.
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   Wilhelm Weil / Suntory Owner:
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   Wilhelm Weil Winemaker: