There are estates you don’t need to defend. They speak for themselves. For me, Robert Weil has been one of them for years. You can argue about Weil – about “classicism”, about style, about a supposed lack of edge. Fine by me. But anyone who has been spinning the same thread consistently for 30 years and in the process has created one of the clearest, most unmistakable Riesling styles in Germany has clearly understood something many others are still looking for: identity. Precision. “Stance”? No, I don’t want to use that word. Let’s just call it character.
Max Kaindl, December 08, 2025
Reading time about 5 minutes
Robert Weil 2024 –
a vintage that speaks softly but hits more precisely than ever
Visiting Kiedrich
And that’s exactly why I drive to Kiedrich every year. Because I want to know how that character sounds in the new vintage. And 2024 sounds surprisingly delicate. Tighter. Cooler. Clearer. A vintage that shows why hillside sites are worth gold today, and why Kiedrich will probably continue to be on the winning side of climate change.
In August I spent an afternoon at the table with Robert Weil, talking in depth about the 2024 wines. Together with his sister Marie-Charlotte and a dynamic young team, he now forms the next generation of the estate – a generation that is slowly, step by step, taking on more responsibility.
My tasting notes
The dry Rieslings
2024 under the microscope
Rheingau Riesling 2024, estate wine
Green, juicy, razor-sharp acidity, light on its feet and as clear as spring water. White peach, pale flowers, zero make-up. An estate wine that shows what Weil delivers already at the base of the pyramid – and why this estate has been so successful for decades. Instant pleasure, yet serious. A benchmark estate Riesling.
Kiedricher Riesling 2024, village wine
More drive. More salt. More length. A village wine that doesn’t just extend the estate bottling but sharpens it. Crystalline, stony, finely built. Virtually textbook balance.
Klosterberg 2024, VDP Erste Lage
A Klosterberg that sounds different to me this year. Brighter, racier, more pointed. Surprisingly high acidity, no broad yellow fruit, lots of stone. For me an unexpected highlight precisely because in 2024 it pushes back against its usually more yellow-fruited profile.
Turmberg Riesling 2024, VDP Erste Lage
Turmberg, stretched tight like a wire. Cool, delicate, glass-clear. Acidity like a beam of light. Dancing, vibrating, almost weightless. Not a wine for people chasing creaminess. But perhaps the smartest Turmberg since 2017 – and one of the most focused dry Rieslings of the entire vintage.
Monte Nostrum 2024
Juicier, denser, more core. A touch of lees, a touch more body than Turmberg, but the same handwriting: clarity, structure, drive. A textbook example of dry Rheingau that could serve as a benchmark for quite a few neighbours in the region.
I’ll admit I was rather skeptical and critical of the first vintages of this wine, given the fairly ambitious pricing on the Place de Bordeaux. In 2023 the potential flashed through for the first time. 2024 confirms it – and makes me genuinely excited about where this wine is heading.
Gräfenberg Riesling 2024, Grosses Gewächs (GG)
Quiet, almost shy at first contact. With air it turns into an event: deep, salty, vibrating. Perfect phenolics, long, stony, precise as a scalpel. A GG for the “I’ll wait five years first” crowd. And they will be proven right.
By the way: patience is essential with Gräfenberg. There are very few GGs in Germany that are this shy – almost expressionless – in their youth and then shine so brightly with age as Gräfenberg from Weil manages to do in many vintages. Sadly, this is a wine that often isn’t really understood in the geek scene – or perhaps simply isn’t meant to be. The simple reason: they don’t wait, and they tend to put wines into boxes far too early. It’s a habit I’m noticing more and more, especially among younger sommeliers, and it worries me. But that’s a topic for another piece.
Monte Vacano 2023
Deserves a chapter of its own. Ripe stone fruit, dense body, fine creaminess, salty finish. Firmly built as always, with that typical Weil sense of grandeur. Needs air and time – and then becomes exactly the wine that tied me to this estate years ago.
Off-dry and noble-sweet Rieslings
The 2024 vintage was a curiosity: up until the TBA there was no botrytis. Zero. And you can taste it. The sweet wines are finer, more dancing, clearer – less opulent but more precise than in many previous years. That’s not meant as a quality judgment, more as a pointer to the character of the vintage.
Rheingau Riesling Tradition 2024, estate wine
Juicy, dangerously drinkable, perfectly balanced. A wine everyone understands – and that still not everyone can pull off.
Rheingau Kabinett 2024, estate wine
Normally Weil’s Kabinett is too sweet for me. Not in 2024. Enormous acidity, slim impression, playful. A Kabi that rediscovers the old lightness.
Rheingau Spätlese 2024, estate wine
Well-behaved. Too well-behaved. Not fat, but for me lacking tension.
Turmberg Riesling Spätlese 2024, VDP Erste Lage
Racy, dense, fine – and yet it’s missing that kick that pushes it from “good” to “wow”.
Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese 2024, VDP Grosse Lage
More complex than Turmberg, a touch riper, properly put together. Good juice, even if not iconic.
One of the rare vintages where I clearly prefer the Gräfenberg Spätlese to the Turmberg. It confirms once again that in cooler, wetter years the naturally higher ripeness of the Gräfenberg translates into more complex wines.
Turmberg Riesling Auslese 2024, VDP Erste Lage
Feather-light, salty, crystalline. An Auslese that really wants to be a Spätlese – and that’s exactly why it convinces me.
Gräfenberg Auslese 2024, VDP Grosse Lage
More yellow fruit, more energy than the Turmberg, fantastic balance. Zero fat. A textbook example of modern lightness.
Gräfenberg Auslese gold cap 2024, VDP Grosse Lage
Now it gets serious. Precise, elegant, almost nobly restrained. Sweetness and acidity marching in perfect lockstep. Delicate and yet forceful on the finish. A poem.
Anyone lucky enough to have this Auslese in their glass will immediately understand why Robert Weil’s sweet wines were already among the most sought-after white wines in the world back in imperial times.
Gräfenberg BA 2024, VDP Grosse Lage
Dense, honey-spiced, yet astonishingly light on its feet. Not heavy, not sticky. A fine, subtle BA. Some will miss the power and oiliness of a “classic” BA here – fair enough. But with no botrytis in the mix this is more a very special, almost unique BA. And that’s exactly how it should be enjoyed.
Gräfenberg TBA 2024, VDP Grosse Lage
Not a powerhouse. No oil slick. Instead a TBA that floats: herbs, yellow fruit, racy acidity, maximum length. For my taste it could have a touch more punch – but here it’s the vintage calling the shots, not the winemaker.
The conclusion – why Weil delivers in 2024 while others struggle
After this afternoon one thing was clear to me: 2024 shows, in brutally clear fashion, why site and elevation now decide between victory and defeat in the Riesling game.
While large parts of the Rheingau were battling rot, Weil – thanks to Kiedrich’s elevation, drainage and coolness – stood like a rock in the storm. Less botrytis pressure, largely clean fruit, long hang time. The Oechsle climbed slowly, but they climbed – and the acidity stayed.
The result?
Fine, precise, crystal-clear wines that transport the core of the estate’s brand perfectly: structure, balance and, above all, precision in the fruit. Robert Weil 2024. Riesling classicism at a world-class level.
And yes, I know the loud “everything has to be reductive and wild” crowd loves to sneer at these wines. Let them. Weil’s consistency, ageability and precision over decades are no accident. You don’t achieve that with constant style changes, with fashionable ferment aromas, with attitude. You do it with skill.
I was a fan. I am a fan. I remain a fan. And the wines of Robert Weil in 2024 confirm exactly why.
Pictures: © The Art of Riesling – Maximilian Kaindl
