Carl Loewen Riesling Kabinett Leiwener Klostergarten

The Wine... Carl Loewen's small estate (8 hectares) makes wines that taste of fresh fruit. Nothing garish or sticky, just a point somewhere between peach skin and heirloom apples. Loewen's wines age in giant old fuders, a developmental method that the winemaker uses to great effect. The wines are seamless, as clean and lively as any white reared in stainless steel, but deeper, more real in my limited mental framework. They taste of the best of the southern Mosel. Loewen reaches this high water mark through natural farming, slow fermentations, and minimal messing around in the cellar: logical steps from our perspective.

The Land... Entering the Mosel valley feels like descending into a last remaining corner of a bucolic and older land. Modernity is here and yet somehow absent. Enough of the immutable character of this quaint, winding river valley and its tributaries remains unchanged to preserve the vision and (to some degree) reality of a quiet agricultural region. The Mosel is disarmingly pretty. It is not surprising that many wines from its fields are fresh, spring-like, lively. They charm drinkers with green apple aromas, they offer fruit that can seem weightless even when tethered to a liquid often containing abundant grape sugars. The key is acidity, and here it cuts cleanly through the wines, to accent what is often minute, fine nuances in flavor, and to increase the desire for another sip.

The Appeal... The Mosel is blessed with many kilometers of relatively unbroken, excellent vine sites. Preferred vineyard locations flip-flop from one side of the river to the other as the Mosel bends, swapping sides in order to catch precious sun in this cool corner of northern Europe. From Trier to Urzig (perhaps pushing even a few kilometers further north to Kinheim) each bend in the river or dip in its bordering vine-covered hillside presents a case study in Mosel terroir. Similar to Burgundy in eastern France, the fractured nature of ownership of these vines excites wine collectors as it allows for direct study of the relative influence of man and nature in the ultimate quality of wine.