2011 Erste Lage Kirchberg Trocken

Candied lime, apple, and passion fruit in the nose of Lowenstein’s 2011 Hatzenporter Kirchberg Riesling reappear on a substantial, satisfyingly juicy palate whose low acidity is noticeable, but which can hardly be called “soft” lest that mislead one into imagining that word describes its texture. In fact, extended skin contact has encouraged this wine in a fine-grained sense of overt extract-richness as well as chew and grip, apple pip, apple peel, and lime zest merging into an almost dusty, palpable impression of crushed stone suffusion in the finish. The overall effect is of invigoration and almost glowing cyanic intensity – yet texturally more refined than in Lowenstein’s two generic cuvees of the vintage – and decidedly not for the faint of heart. It will be really fascinating to see how this forceful, bittersweetly persistent Riesling ages. I feel sure it will merit following for at least 4-5 years. “They were a pleasant surprise,” says Reinhard Lowenstein of his 2011 results, adding “I would never have believed heading into harvest that they would have turned out so well. I was afraid there’d be negative botrytis like in 2006, but in fact there was just a small band in Rottgen and Uhlen and higher up everything stayed healthy.” The main portion of his crop was picked near the end of September, as early as has ever been the case here, yet with hindsight he says “if I wanted to be completely candid about it, we probably should have started a week earlier.” What genuinely noble rot there was (with one notable exception) “didn’t lend itself to sweet wine,” in his words, “because there was too little acidity,” though some felicitously botrytized musts informed reserve lots or were judiciously blended into the dry cuvees. While noting that he was at pains to preserve a sense of precision in the resultant wines, Lowenstein had no compunction about treating his vintage 2011 fruit to a, for him, typical 12-18 hours of pre-fermentative skin contact, further extended by some eight hours’ pressing. “The new, second press I got for 2010,” he notes, “is so quiet that I can run it overnight without my neighbor falling out of his bed; so now I press ‘round the clock and for as long as I want.” Asked whether he thought that some of these relatively low-acid (and without question specifically low-malic) wines underwent malo-lactic conversion Lowenstein replied “I’m not even going to analyze them to find out.” The present collection won’t by any means cause one to forget the singular, striking (and for that reason all “Reserve”-designated) 2010s turned out at this address, but it would be wise to leave most of those gems in the cellar for a while, while you could happily start drinking most of these 2011s right away. Imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland, OR; tel. (888) 274-4312; and The Source Imports, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 621- 6151