Mineralstein Sauvignon Blanc 2024

Gerd Stepp

IIf you had told this specialist Argentine importer a few years ago we would be championing German Sauvignon Blanc with the gusto of a gazelle bounding through the commercial quagmire, you might have been met with a wry grin and the word, ‘really?’ But hey, here we are! The relationship we have formed with Gerd Stepp and his brilliant wines in the Pfalz has flourished so much and has been met with such positivity in the trade that we’d consider selling his own-brand ashtrays for motorbikes.

Sauvignon Blanc is a relative newcomer in the Pfalz and it loves the higher altitude limestone-rich soils. The grapes are gently de-stemmed and the juice is separated from the skins immediately. As with all of Gerd’s whites, the wine remain ‘sur lie’ until bottling with no stirring and is bottled with only one light filtration.

On the nose there are hints of ripe gooseberry and greengage with hints of nettle, not quite tipping into ‘new world’ territory but extremely inviting and open / forward. On the palate the wine is somewhat reigned back with delicious citrus fruit character up-front, lively natural acidity and more of that grassy, herbaceous profile. This could not be any other grape variety and it is, in the end, distinctly ‘old world’ with a happy honesty in its making that we now associate strongly with Gerd’s wines. Fantastic value too compared to its counterparts in both hemispheres.