Schloss Johannisberg - Orangelack Kabinett - Rheingau 2023

Vinous

byAnne Krebiehl MWthe2/28/2025

The 2023 Riesling Schloss Johannisberg Orangelack Kabinett is a new wine for the estate. It was picked in the first week of harvest in the central part of the Johannisberg. As a point of difference to the Rotlack Kabinett, this was whole-bunch-pressed in a basket press and fermented in stainless steel, then matured for six months in wood barrel on fine lees. Summer blossom and tender tangerine peel are absolutely aromatic and beguiling on the nose. Pure peach, pale but red-cheeked and utterly scented, weaves its magic on the slender palate, countered by ripe lemon—tender, aromatic, supple and so fresh. A most seductive wine, it’s light and ethereal, leading to a long finish. (Off-dry)

Wine Advocate

94

byStephan Reinhardtthe10/31/2024

The 2023 Schloss Johannisberg Orangelack Riesling Kabinett is the first since 1979, and it is exclusively sold via the Place de Bordeaux and available from 21 October this year. It's from the upper, south-facing Oberberg of the grand cru, where the grapes were picked on October 2 at 92° Oechsle. Partly pressed in whole clusters and partly macerated for 24 hours and pressed in a basket press, the wine fermented in stainless steel and aged on the fine lees in a single traditional stück until the bottling in late July. This Kabinett opens with a deep, pure, fine and subtly intense, stimulating mineral bouquet of ripe fruits and crushed dark rocks. Lush and refined on the palate, this is a generous, textured and well-balanced Schloss Johannisberger with uplifted substance thanks to enormously saline and delicate mineral grip and tension. This is a playful but seriously intense and savory as well as concentrated Kabinett with great finesse and a long, salivating and grippy finish that will make it an excellent food wine in 10 or so years. Compared to the Rotlack Kabinett, the Orangelack is the more intense yet also finer, more nuanced and filigreed Kabinett with fine grip. Natural cork. Tasted in early July and again at the domaine at the end of August 2024.
94+

The Drinks Business

95

byColin Haythe8/31/2024

(Rheingau; 100% Riesing; 1200 bottles). A wine that has not been commercialised since the 1980s. There are just 1200 bottles, as for the other cuvée. This is the top Kabinett of the estate. Pure. Clean. Precise and focussed. A lovely tension between the sucrosity and the searing acidity. A little floral honeyed note, saffron too (in the same vein). So clean and rapier-like in its precision. White flowers, white pear and a little blanched almond, Granny Smith flesh too. Exquisite.

Vinous

94

byAnne Krebiehl MWthe8/1/2024

The 2023 Riesling Schloss Johannisberg Orangelack Kabinett is a new wine for the estate. It was picked in the first week of harvest in the central part of the Johannisberg. As a point of difference to the Rotlack Kabinett, this was whole-bunch-pressed in a basket press and fermented in stainless steel, then matured for six months in wood barrel on fine lees. Summer blossom and tender tangerine peel are absolutely aromatic and beguiling on the nose. Pure peach, pale but red-cheeked and utterly scented, weaves its magic on the slender palate, countered by ripe lemon—tender, aromatic, supple and so fresh. A most seductive wine, it’s light and ethereal, leading to a long finish. (Off-dry)

Jamessuckling.com

98

byJames Sucklingthe7/4/2024

What explosive aromas this astonishing riesling Kabinett has. The aromatic maelstrom is hard to adequately describe, but there’s no question that the flinty energy catalyses the astonishing spectrum of aromas that reaches from rose hips to gunpowder via vineyard peaches and pomegranates. Staggering energy in the extremely long and incredibly stony finish. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2026.