Peter Lauer - Riesling "Fass 11" Schonfels GG 750ml 2022 (12.5% ABV)

The Schonfels GG, as a wine, is without a doubt the most structured, brutal and mineral of Lauer’s dry wines. It smacks one upside the head like a fortress built out of slate. Pure and precise - it is unforgiving and requires many years in bottle to integrate and become expressive. A 12 hour decant is not a bad idea. It is a monumental wine and perhaps the greatest dry wine of the Saar.

The Schonfels is one of the most daunting sites of the Saar; under Florian Lauer’s care, it is also becoming one of the most famous sites. While the vineyard has always had a huge reputation, Florian’s father let the site go fallow in the 1980s. The reason? It’s too damn expensive and too difficult and dangerous to farm. The vines here are over 100 years old and ungrafted. Thus, even in good years, the yield is paltry. In addition, because the site is so steep, it is very difficult and very dangerous to farm. In fact, as the site “ends” in a rock face that drops a few hundred feet to a street below, harvesters must be harnessed in, via a carabiner, to a tractor parked at the top of the vineyard. There can be no slipping here; it is truly a matter of life and death.

..one of the legendary dry wines of Germany, Florian’s decision, in the late 2000s, to rehabilitate this site was equal parts daring, brilliant, insane, and potentially financially crippling to the estate ... so it essentially looked like a young forest. Months of (dangerous) work were required to rip out, by hand, most of the wild vegetation, in the hopes that the vines would still be alive. Luckily, they were. And luckily, the reputation of the site has proven itself. But this was a serious, serious gamble.

 grey slate, south-east exposure looking overlooking the Saar, unique, extreme, unprotected & windy terroir for the region. Often harvested 2 weeks after other sites in the region.

A benchmark dry Riesling from one of the top producers, petrol, crushed slate, blinding acidity, unreal texture, finishes for days. Can be cellared for 10-20+ years easily.

Mosel Fine Wine Review:

“The 2022er Schonfels as it is referred to on the central part of the label (GG is written top left), comes from this steep south-east facing hill overseeing the Saar (legally part of the Ayler Kupp vineyard). It offers a beautifully complex, smoky, and herbal nose of minty herbs, cassis, licorice, greengage, grapefruit zest, anise, and wild herbs. The wine proves structured and still compact, with a touch more smoothness on the mid-palate. The finish already shows more energy and precision ... "

region: Mosel, Germany

varietal: Riesling

style: ageworthy dry white

farming/cellar: organic, no copper sprays, hand picked, whole cluster direct press, ambient yeast, aged on lees in old Fuder, unfined, lightly filtered, vegan

pairing: