Just as it took me time to come to love St. Emilion, so too has it taken time for me to finally love and truly embrace dry German Riesling. Having the 2018 vintage around helps- I find generally (at least in the Mosel and Nahe) that the forward and slightly sweet nature of the vintage makes these a bit more approachable than I have found in the past. And today I had my first ever encounter with a most wonderful one indeed.
2018 Carl Loewen Riesling 1896
bright lemon color, a beguiling array of primary fruits and herb notes on the nose at first, on the palate ever so slightly sweet with gooseberries, grapefruit and subtle lime notes, dried herb tones throughout, and underpinning all of that a tense and undeveloped minerality with textures and tones of white sand, after about two hours the wine closes down on the palate and becomes almost brooding- still approachable on the front but with a powerful long dry finish, 6 hours later it has now settled- more approachable but still not as enticing as it was when first opened, now there are some floral tones on the nose, on the palate the full depth of the mineral textures now flows through all the layers of primary fruit- leading into a fine long aromatic finish with lime acids and dried herbs, this is really exceptional wine and promises to blossom beautifully with some cellar time, this wine is new to me so predictions are difficult, but I think 5-6 years will be enough before it begins to unfurl, despite its racy tendencies- overall this feels very complete and even calming as compared to its peers. In that respect it reminds me of Chateau Figeac.
(*****), 2025-2040+
Note for anyone who goes seeking this out- on CT and winesearcher both there is some confusion in the marketing of this wine (CT is accurate but there is a manually added entry that is duplicative and on winesearcher the descriptions are not always complete enough to differentiate). There are 2 1896 Rieslings- this one a Grosse Lage, and the other a Trocken Alte Reben. The former, the one noted here, carries a very dark grey label while the Trocken carries a tan label. Where there is no distinction, you can go off price though I would confirm with merchants first if buying sight unseen- the Trocken seems to go for around $40-50 while the Grosse Lage is $75+. I hope I have this precise- it is based on limited research. Grateful for any corrections needed.
EDIT - Thanks all for the kind words and good feedback. David- when I read your post it occurred to me to go back to Terryâs catalogue and check there. I leave the above intact for reference, but it turns out that the CT designations do match the catalog- and per the catalog and CT, what I tasted is simply labelled as âRiesling 1896â. As noted below by Charlie, it comes from the Longuich Maximin Herrenberg.
The tan label wine is designated as âMaximin Herrenberg Grosse Lage â1896â Riesling Alte Reben Trockenâ. Another distinction is in the packaging in case that helps. The Riesling 1896 I tasted above comes in a 6 pack wood case. The Alte Reben Trocken comes in a 12 pack cardboard case.
Making matters more fun, it turns out there is also a âMaximin Herrenberg Riesling Grosses GewĂ€chsâ which comes from a parcel planted in 1902. This one is also available to me locally and seems a good one to explore this weekend.
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