'1896' Riesling

Variety: Riesling • Region: Mosel • Vineyard: Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg – planted in 1896 • Soil Type: Red slate • Fermentation & Élevage: Direct press, no maceration, natural fermentation in stainless steel

This is the most traditional wine of the estate; the grapes are carefully carried to the base of the vineyard where they are immediately crushed by foot. After the foot crushing, the grapes/must are brought to the estate where everything goes into a traditional vertical press. After the press, the juice goes directly into barrel without sedimentation for spontaneous fermentation. Once fermentation stops, regardless of where the RS is, the wine is done. Not only is this the most traditional way of making wine in the region, it’s the most “low intervention” wine you’ll find that shows the incredible depth that only old vines can offer. There is only ever a single barrel made.

Maximin Herrenberg is a south-facing vineyard with red slate, a soil structure that is relatively rare in the Mosel.

Before the turn of the 20th century, Carl Schmitt-Wagner decided to replant the most special parcel of the Maximum Herrenberg vineyard using a massale selection from the very best material he had at that time. The Prussian tax map of 1868 had already designated Maximum Herrenberg as a top site in the region at that time. Using the Roman, single-pole training system, the vineyard was planted with a density of 10,000 vines per hectare.

When the Schmitt-Wagner estate was unsuccessful in convincing one of their heirs to take over this significant and historic domaine, Karl-Joseph Loewen was able, over time, to convince them that the Loewen family would honor the history of the vineyard. At the conclusion of the purchase, the Carl Loewen estate was now the proud owner of 9000 vines that had been planted between 1896-1910, with the crown Jewel, Herrenberg, being the oldest Riesling vineyard in the world.

Tasting wines from these parcels is like participating in a “living monument of viticultural history”.