Jakob Tennstedt
Jakob Tennstedt belongs to a new generation of German winemakers who insist on going their own ways. Originally, he has a background as a chef, but he got tired of gastronomy, while his interest in wine grew. After graduating from the University of Geisenheim, he worked for Elisabetta Foradori and Château de Béru among others and then settled in the Kautenbachtal valley in Traben-Trarbach in Moselle.
The vineyards Trarbacher Ungsberg and Trarbacher Hühnerberg may not be the best known in Moselle, but that has its advantages. There are no neighbours with a less conscientious approach to vineyard work and the terroir is exceptional: grey slate on extremely steep and south-facing terraces and 50–100-year-old vines. The vineyards are impossible to equip with machinery, and everything must be done by hand.
In the cellar, Jakob is just as uncompromising as in the vineyards: Slow and gentle pressing of whole clusters, occasionally a short initial maceration, spontaneous fermentation, zero additions of any kind and no fining or filtration. Jakob has made experiments with a minimal addition of sulphur prior to bottling but has not been satisfied with the result and now insists on omitting it completely. The wines of Jakob Tennstedt are some of the most impressive German wines that we have tasted in a long time and are difficult to compare with anything else: deeply serious and with enormous concentration and weight, but at the same time incredibly easy to drink, unmanipulated and with lots of finesse.
