2007 Schieferterrassen

Lowenstein’s 2007 Riesling Schieferterrassen serves admirably, as usual, to introduce his relatively gentle, expansive style. In the best 2007 fashion, one gets transparency to subtly saline, peppery, and stony mineral nuances as well as refreshment from this creamily-textured and polished Riesling. Winter pear and lime tinged with Lower Mosel-typical licorice are the prime non-mineral members of the cast. With the installation of increasingly many casks in Lowenstein’s cellar, even this Schieferterrassen bottling now shows complexities from the small proportion of wood involved in its upbringing (and other wines here are now fermented in cask). It will prove highly versatile over at least the next 3-4 years. Readers unfamiliar with the influential and inspiring – though not uncontroversial – work of Reinhard Lowenstein in the ultra-steep, terraced, geologically diverse slopes of the Mosel just above its confluence with the Rhine are urged to consult my accounts in issues 163 and 167. Among Lowenstein’s much-discussed ideas – not that I personally treat this as less than obvious – is that Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer Rieslings are more expressive, better-balanced, and have better aging potential – while potentially, for all practical purposes, still tasting essentially dry – when their residual sugar is allowed to rest above legal Trockenheit. Lowenstein’s nobly sweet Rieslings frequently tend toward a creaminess and sense of lees and stuffing consistent with his dry wines, yet they incorporate at their best a sense of delicacy, refinement, and transparency to mineral sensations that seldom apply to any other grape than Riesling or at any significant distance from the Mosel The 2007 vintage Auslesen tend in fact to be quite obvious in their acidity, and are designated “gold capsule” to reflect their high quality, not because there are any corresponding “regular” Auslese bottlings. To minimize confusion or the need to reference A.P. (registration) numbers, Lowenstein prints the initials “G.K.” – or, in the event of a yet riper “long gold capsule” Auslese, “L.G.K.” – on his labels. Imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312; Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA 415 642 5500; and Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 932 9113