Region: Mosel, Germany
Color/Style: White Wine
Grapes: Riesling

All the Ludes wines are time machines to a cooler world. This is a fun introduction from Mosel Fine Wines: “Julian Ludes completely nailed the vintage and the estate’s collection will go down in history as one of the finest at this traditional winery. The uncompromising style embracing acidity and finesse delivered wines of great vibrancy and cut yet with great aromatic depth, and this right from the entry level wine, the Riesling “Hermann.” In many ways, they are all cut from a hypothetical blend of Joh. Joh. Prüm’s early backwardness and Hofgut Falkenstein”s zing while embracing the delicacy and finesse from both estates. While these wines are exceptionally good, they are also exceptionally old-school and still often firmly marked by residual scents from their spontaneous fermentation. But we cannot wait to taste these beauties in 8-12 years: It is going to be a feast! Bravo to young Julian and his team for this incredible collection.”

Yes – not one but two “Kabinett Feinherbs” in the collection. The “Gackes Unten” is sourced from a prime, central parcel of the Ritch, under the “Gackes,” which, you might imagine, is yet another word in the Mosel dialect for slate. The parcel is, literally, under a small wall of slate. This is a remarkably stoney part of the vineyard with very shallow soil planted to 85 year old ungrafted vines with very low yields. This is the drier wine at 20g of residual sugar and 10.8g of acid.

This is simply a superlative wine – the only benchmarks we can think of are Stein’s Himmelreich Kabinett Feinherb and those of Hofgut Falkenstein. The nose is outrageously stoney, again that salty slatey note similar to the village-level Thörnich. This is a perplexing wine, with so much mineral and citrus and spice, yet also just a profoundly refreshing and clean cream note, though not at all malic or heavy feeling. So much fresh garden-greenness, a floral citrus-cream quality, yet an invigorating, crystalline and angelic-feeling delicacy. Superb.