A few 2020 Saar Rieslings

R

Rahsaan

Rahsaan
2020 Falkenstein Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kabinett Alte Reben (Gisela)
Chiseled firm and fresh, there is great cut and great stoney depth, with layered structure body revealing itself with air. The fruit peeks out a bit over time, and it’s certainly not a difficult wine to drink. But as admirable as it is, the joy is not yet there and I’m not opening any more bottles any time soon.

2020 Lauer Ayler Kupp Kabinett Fass 8
Gorgeous. Showing very well. Juicy plump sweet lemon drop fruit, but great Saar freshness and citrus verve. Very vivid, very delicious.

2020 Lauer Kern No. 9
This is tougher going. Sure it’s refined and subtle, which is nice. But the airy crisp structure is not as giving and feels a bit backwards right now. There is some material there, so the future is probably better.

2020 Lauer Stirn No. 15
Gorgeous. So fine, so precise and so delicate, but also friendly with a nice zesty tangy herbal lime sweetness. Racy and lovely. More please, the bottle is empty.
 
Nice!!!

Young Gisela has takem at least 2 days to open for me the last few vintages. Haven’t tried 2020 yet.

I think Stirn is Lauer’s best wine. I’m excited to try 2020. Sounds fabulous.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
Young Gisela has takem at least 2 days to open for me the last few vintages. Haven’t tried 2020 yet.
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I had some on the second day and it was showing more of its 'impressive' character, but not necessarily heading in a direction of more joy. So I guess the best play for me is to just wait.

originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
I think Stirn is Lauer’s best wine. I’m excited to try 2020. Sounds fabulous.
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So many Lauer bottlings and 5-10 years ago they never seemed to connect with me. Whether I've changed or the wines have changed, who knows. But I'm very much appreciating them now, and was definitely inspired to follow up with Stirn.
 
are the kern and stirn also kabinett?

lauer has (had?) lovely guesthouse facilities. stayed there back in spring 1999. walked the kupp vineyard before breakfast, and found getting back into town a bit tricky due to a guard dog that seemed to think it had been delegated to guard the entire village.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
are the kern and stirn also kabinett?
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Neither are, I believe. According to Mosel Fine Wines, both have 37 g of RS. That sounds like feinherb, though they are not labeled as such.
 
What mark said. Stephen (at the Vom Boden website) reports the wine at 9.3% ABV so let’s call it a Spatlese Feinherb although I don’t see any info on the web for the average must weight at harvest. Also according to the Vom Boden website, it has 9.7 g/l of acidity, and while I’m not sure by what measure on acidity (guessing total acidity based on the Tartaric standard), that is a nicely balanced wine (for us acid lovers at least).
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by robert ames:
are the kern and stirn also kabinett?
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Neither are, I believe. According to Mosel Fine Wines, both have 37 g of RS. That sounds like feinherb, though they are not labeled as such.
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so are there regulations regarding the level of RS that can be found in a kabinett?

my understanding (which i figure is probably limited as the german way is rarely simple--read a schildknecht article) is that for kabinett, spatlese, auslese, etc., the requirement is that there be at least a certain threshold level of sugar in the grapes for that classification at harvest--also that the wine not be chapitalised.

as things have gotten warmer it is not unusual to read that a wine bottled as kabinett could have been labelled spatlese, but the producer needs to produce a kabinett and since the threshold level of sugar at harvest has been met is allowed to label as kabinett.
 
Kabinett and feinherb are two independent terms, with feinherb not even being legally defined. Kabinett is defined by a minimum must weight of the wine. There is no upper limit, so a wine can still be labeled Kabinett even as it is over the Spätlese threshold.
Sweetness is defined by gramms residual sugar, in categories from trocken, halbtrocken, lieblich to sweet. Feinherb has been used for wines in the halbtrocken or lieblich category that the producer deemed to taste dryer than what the analysis suggests. Not surprisingly this is often used for Saar Rieslings.
37g/l would officially be lieblich and is at the higher end of what usually is marketed as feinherb.
Totally straightforward and logical, as always.
 
alrighty, so a kabinett could also be labelled as lieblich (legally defined) and feinherb (not legally defined, but 'helpful').
 
originally posted by robert ames:
alrighty, so a kabinett could also be labelled as lieblich (legally defined) and feinherb (not legally defined, but 'helpful').
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Yes, but lieblich is almost never seen on labels as people might like the taste but not the name..
In Germany the vast majority of people claim to like dry wines, but if you pour them a variety they mostly prefer halbtrocken or lieblich.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by robert ames:
alrighty, so a kabinett could also be labelled as lieblich (legally defined) and feinherb (not legally defined, but 'helpful').
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Yes, but lieblich is almost never seen on labels as people might like the taste but not the name..
In Germany the vast majority of people claim to like dry wines, but if you pour them a variety they mostly prefer halbtrocken or lieblich.
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As anyone who works in a US tasting room can tell you, the same holds true in the US. Analytically dry whites are no easy sell here. And then there are those sweet reds, so popular here in flyover country.

Mark Lipton
 
I've recently opened a couple of bottles of 2002 Karthauserhof SL, which, I know, is Ruwer rather than Saar. But to gauge briefly from the other end of the telescope, as it were, these wines at 19 years are divine - a descriptor I don't really ever use. Such a delicate, steely thread of balance and intensity. So good.
 
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