For over 150 years, Reichsrat von Buhl has remained a family-owned affair farming and crafting terroir-transparent wines in the two villages of Deidesheim and Forst. Over the decades, their legacy has been largely defined by consistency and reverence—at one point in the mid-1800s, their wines were among the most expensive in the world.  

Today, they organically farm their prized vineyards and the Grosse Lage (Grand Cru site) of “Pechstein” is arguably the most distinct of them all. Planted on an extinct volcano, these soils are rich in basalt—“nowhere can you find more basalt”—interspersed with red sandstone and loam. Von Buhl’s vines here generate extremely low yields, rarely more than 25hl/ha, and highly selective harvests are always conducted by hand. In the cellar, grapes are pressed into doppelstückfass (2400L German oak barrels) for spontaneous fermentation and subsequent aging on fine lees. The wines are generally bottled the following summer. 

This 2019 Pechstein from von Buhl is monstrously mineral. Even amidst expansive layers of citrus, candied lime, apricot, pineapple, and sweet vanilla spice, the dominating presence here is petrol, smoke, and liquified rock. Still, there is real beauty and sublimity contained within its raw power. The pedigree and intensity here is undeniable but oxygen is a requirement should you want to enjoy this in the next 2-3 years. This will age two decades with ease.