Carl Schmitt-Wagner Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Auslese

The Wine... People sometimes focus on the analytics of this wine and miss its beauty. This Auslese comes from a high mountain vineyard site planted to ungrafted Riesling vines. It is a late picked selection in the very beginning of its window of optimal drinkability. Some of the vines used to make this wine are extremely old. By international standards it is high in both sugar and acidity. Only a half-fuder was made. I never think about those things when I taste it. I just taste this clear, perfect wine, and find my thoughts turning to how lucky we are to be able to experience it for a relatively moderate amount of cash. Cheaper than a date at the movies, and more likely to lead to romance, too. Serve it with freshwater fish and your dinner will be better-than-average.

The Estate... was purchased in 1804 by the Schmitt Wagner family, a lucky event made possible by Napoleon Bonaparte's decision to secularize the vineyards of the abbey of St. Maximin in Trier. Bruno Schmitt is an active participant at the estate, but since 2008 it has been friendly neighbor Carl Loewen making the wines. In the cellar of Schmitt Wagner only natural yeasts are used to start fermentation. Everything is done in a thoughtful, old-school way. Observational rather than scientific winemaking.

The Land... The Schmitt-Wagner estate is built around 6,000 pre-phylloxera vines planted in 1896, an exceptionally large stand of century-old Riesling. This Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg site has Devonian slate soils which prevent erosion, retain heat and generally make growing top quality grapes from this treasure-trove of vines possible.