With some of the first 2024s from Germany hitting New York, there is a bit of good news/bad news to share. Lets start with the good- 2024 is an incredibly classic vintage, think back to the 1990's or more recently like that of 2021! 2024 is bringing back the days of old school Mosel Riesling at its best. The caveat? Quantities are slim. Due to a frost in late April, many growers lost fruit. Additionally, organic growers battled downy mildew throughout the season leaving quantities extremely limited. All that being said, let's focus on the positive, we at Chambers Street are bringing in as many of these wines as we can get our hands on. So get ready for some stunning, very mineral driven Riesling with acidity that will keep you refreshed now and will prove to age incredibly well. 
 
We are starting out with Weiser-Kunstler, the husband-and-wife team of Konstantin Weiser and Alexandra Kunstler. The couple began their estate in 2005 with the purchase of a parcel of vines in Ellergrub. This has expanded over the years to encompass 4.3 hectares of very steep, mainly ungrafted wines in Ellergrub, Gaispfad, and Steffensberg. Brief history aside, Eben just visited the estate within the last month and has first hand experiences to share! 
 
-Hanna Krilov Cohen

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Konstantin Weiser and Alexandra Kunstler are two of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, brimming with positivity and good humor, two qualities that seem to be extremely valuable considering the exhausting steepness of the insane vineyards they work! They farm organically, which is extremely challenging in this area, but it's something they believe in and are committed to. They're aware that what they do is incredibly special and rare but they are completely humble and so gracious that there is a small community around the world that appreciates and finds enjoyment and gustatory pleasure from their scintillating Rieslings. While visiting many estates in the Mosel, the story was clear that the most historically famous and world-renowned parcels are the least desirable now as no one wants to do the work. Just hiking up the Ellergrub for a morning cup of coffee was enough for me to understand why, and more than enough to appreciate Alexandra and Konstantin even more for being the caretakers of this prized and precious site, along with several others in the area. 

When I asked them about the wooden posts (pictured above) that each vine is trained to, they told the story of how the region used to have several specialists whose trade was just to produce posts for the steep vineyards. Since there were many of these specialists (typically one per village), the quality of the posts was very high, as vineyard owners would simply buy from the next village if they found their town's posts to be sub-par! Over the decades, however, all of these local specialists have disappeared, the last one closing up shop sometime in the past 10 years. Now the only place to get posts is the large commercial wine supply warehouse, which stocks poor quality wooden posts that do not last even half as long as the old local ones. Something about this story mirrored to me Alexandra and Konstantin's roles in the long history of this region. They are the last of a handful of very dedicated artisans, sacrificing a lot to carry on tradition and produce the highest quality wines from these historic vineyards. In the simple act of purchasing Weiser-Kunstler wines, we are supporting and preserving history, which is if course always the case when we support small producers but is never more the case than it is here.         
 
-Eben Lillie

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