BIG, BIGGER, SOVEREIGN

26 liters of dry top Riesling in a rare sovereign bottle. Strictly limited to nine numbered copies. For six continents. These are the key data of the latest project of the VDP winery Balthasar Ress. A 26-liter bottle of "RESSpekt," number 1 in the miniseries, can be purchased during the annual wine auction at Kloster Eberbach on February 29, 2020. The starting bid is 3,000 EUR- anyone can bid online on Facebook.

With the wine, the buyer buys a promise from Christian Ress: "I will gladly fly to the end of the world at the request of the customer to open and present the bottle with the number 1 for him and his guests."  

The Rheingau wine entrepreneur has already sold four of the bottles. Enthusiastic collectors and dealers in Africa, the USA and Europe have each secured a copy of the coveted RESSpekt Sovereign. Two bottles will remain in the family treasury of the House of Balthasar Ress until further notice.  

Fine craftsmanship from the crate to the wine

The bottles themselves contain an exceptional, dry 2018 Riesling: the RESSpekt - the estate's top dry cuvée. Christian Ress and his operations manager Oliver Schmid used only the highest-quality grapes from the best parcels of the Rüdesheimer Berg for this wine. After a long maceration period, the must was fermented spontaneously and then aged on the fine lees for twelve months. There is a total of exactly 264 liters of the 2018 RESSpekt. Forty 0.75l bottles and the nine sovereigns were filled. The top Riesling has an immense development potential. Currently, it impresses with a tropical bouquet. Passion fruit and grapefruit dominate the nose. On the palate, the young RESSpekt is still somewhat restrained, but its power is already apparent. Notes of brioche, peach, honey and wet stones form a harmonious taste experience. Nevertheless, the recommendation of the house: let it lie!

The large-format, numbered RESSpekt bottles were provided with a high-quality pewter label. The wines are presented in fine wooden boxes - a cabinetmaker handcrafted them especially for the project.

Larger bottle formats will play an increasingly important role in the Balthasar Ress range in the future. With the Sovereign project, Christian Ress is initiating this strategy. "The wines simply develop even better in large formats. In the future, we will therefore fill larger quantities of our top wines in large formats - from magnum bottles to 12-liter Balthazars."

A Sovereign on Tour: #BR26Liter

Before the last available bottle is auctioned off at Kloster Eberbach, Christian Ress will present his treasure on various occasions at diverse locations, from the foyer of the Kronenschlösschen in Hattenheim to the foyer of Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt to the Welcome Party of the Rheingau Gourmet Festival at Kloster Eberbach. Under #BR26Liter, Christian Ress will keep his social media followers up to date on where the Sovereign is at the moment.