German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

lowed, and gave the wines their very high extracts. That
said, it’s an atypically powerful vintage for Carl — I sense
he’s more at home amongst the virtues of an `04 — but many
of these wines tickle the limits of slatey expressiveness.
Loewen’s wines also have a quality of companionability
which can’t be isolated or quantified but which deter-
mines how friendly you feel toward them. Some wines
seem to want to take you to a world where all there is is
wine. Others, no less absorbing or delightful, seem content
to meet you in your world. Whenever I drink or taste
Loewen’s wines I always want to curl up with a book,
ideally by an open window near a singing thrush.
Energetic, idealistic young couple on a quixotic quest to
loewen at a glance:
gain renown for the great unknown sites of this part of
the Mosel. Astoundingly reasonable prices for very high-quality juice! “Cool” chalkyminerally
style, as if the wines were blended with 15% Blanc de Blancs Champagne.
All that’s stony is not slate. Loewens have some wines on
how the wines taste:
sand or gravel, and these have a “northern” coolness
without being explicitly slatey. The wines from the sirloin-quality Laurentiuslay have a
fruit all their own: feline and nectarine-y. Loewen also places high emphasis on fruit-freshness:
“I don’t like ‘old-wine’ flavor and I definitely don’t like this petrol taste,” he says.
GCL-045 2005 Riesling Trocken “Varidor”
There is every reason to like this wonderful dry Riesling; it’s an eerily dead-ringer for
Vertus-Mesnil Champagne ; it’s crisply dry but far from sharp; it’s oystery and minerally
and jasmine-y and it has a ripe power. 20% botrytis adds complexity.
SOS: 0 (now to 3 years, again 9-13 years)
GCL-039 2005 Leiwener Klostergarten Riesling Kabinett
CORE-LIST WINE. 41 year old vines. As always this has the Vertus fragrance, a cool
“chalkiness” and powdery mineral. Clearly this `05 is a freak: 93 Oechsle and all that.
Talc-y fragrance with aloe vera, miitake, verbena and patisserie; a powerhouse-palate, a
real gob-stuffer; shoulder-shaking, tangy, mirabelle-y monster — and important: none
too sweet. It’s super Riesling, and they tell me normal life will return eventually.
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (6-17 years)
GCL-041 2004 Leiwener Laurentiuslay Riesling Spätlese
First offering. That’s because last year I selected the Ritsch instead; both were good but I
wanted to tidy the offering by only showing one. Now I choose this over its `05 sib,
because I like it more. In fact it’s quite adorable, thank you very much; I love its fresh
Mirabelle and white peach and verbena aromas, and the palate is silky, crisp and salty,
with a fine nap of malty botrytis. The `05 is impressive, and will be offered when this sells
out (as item # GCL-044), but I am seduced by the sheer agreeableness of this charming `04.
SOS: 2 (8-25 years)
GCL-040 2005 Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Auslese +
This has become one of my poster-children for terroir, and a wine I’m buying every year
for my cellar. “I wanted to make a Spätlese from this,” Carl said, “And as you’ll see the
sweetness is quite moderate, but the problem is it doesn’t taste like a Spätlese. So instead
it’s an Auslese to drink and not to win prizes.”
A mere 102 Oechsle. And you are perhaps too modest, my friend. Correct, it’s none too
sweet, but if this can’t win prizes then they aren’t worth having. A fabulously beautiful
nose, about as gorgeous as slate Riesling can smell, with complex herbal balsam notes;
the palate is piquant and wry, with tart-sweet limey fruit leading into a finish that
clamps onto the palate. My single plus is perhaps a mite stingy . . . SOS: 2
GCL-042H 2005 Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling BA, 12/375ml ++
This was less rich and sweet than a Laurentiuslay BA by its side, but it’s a quintessence
of the great site and not overwhelmed by botrytis; it’s fervidly salty and lime-like, and
the sweetness is tweaked by a verbena-edge creating an uncanny call-and-response
among unexpected parameters; green (lime), black (compacted mineral) and a kind of
leaf-shade coolness. This wine will not seduce you, but it will haunt you.
SOS: 4 (20-40 years)
GCL-043H 2005 Leiwener Klostergarten Riesling Eiswein, 12/375ml +
Picked December 11. You won’t see many of these from `05 (I only have one other) and
this doesn’t do the crampons-of-acidity thing, but it smells like Eiswein, mango and
lime; whereas on the palate it feints toward BA with a soupcon of healthy botrytis; a fine
quality of fruit; comice pear, talc and balsam. SOS: 4 (7-22 years)
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MOSEL WINES