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Carl Loewen

“I’ve seldom experienced a year in which such ripe grapes resulted in so much minerality and such efficacious, perfectly-integrated acidity,” remarked Karl Josef Loewen of 2015. Both the inhibition of botrytis this year and the tendency for must weights to plateau in October and let flavors catch up worked to the advantage of Loewen’s dry wines, since he is wont to push for ripeness of flavor even at the price of high Oechsle or botrytis, which can sometimes result in alcoholic warmth or roughness. But he was also wise this year to allow several wines intended to taste dry to stop fermenting before they reached legal Trockenheit. Apropos of must weights, as many readers will already realize, I am a huge fan of the notion behind Loewen’s “Riesling 9.5” and other recent attempts to recapture Mosel levity. But even in 2014 the “9.5” bottling actually contained 10.5 percent alcohol, and Loewen says anything flavorful he was going to pick in 2015 was bound to have another whole percentage of potential alcohol, so he produced no 2015 “9.5.” (To be honest, I thought from the beginning that he had made a bad call for the sake of shock value when he named this bottling.) Loewen points out that his principal holdings in the Laurentiuslay benefited in 2015 from their relatively generous share of fine particulate matter that trapped precious moisture during the hot, dry summer. And old vines in his terraced section certainly also helped boost quality, though they are young when compared with those Loewen farms in Longuich’s Maximin Herrenberg. Picking here in 2015 began on October 5 and ran into the first week of November.

Anyone not already familiar with this inspiring grower’s viticultural and vinificatory methodology, his experimental vision or (especially) the outstanding vineyard sites he farms, two of which he is arguably the first grower in more than a generation to adequately showcase, should consult the introduction to my coverage of his 2014s. Loewen, whose son Christopher is now his cellar right hand, was able to acquire a new, marginally cooler parcel in the Thörnicher Ritsch in time for this vintage, and that represents a major accomplishment considering that it took a decade to acquire his first, growers in this village having been determined to keep outsiders from buying in. (Meantime, the long-recognized greatness of this site was being allowed to become just a distant memory.)

From Mosel 2015: Rain in the Nick of Time (Jun 2017) by David Schildknecht

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2010 Pinot Blanc trocken

Color: White

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Carl Loewen

2010 Pinot Blanc trocken

2015 Riesling Quant

2015 Riesling Riesling trocken Varidor

2015 Riesling trocken Alte Reben

2015 Riesling Detzemer Maximin Klosterlay Riesling

2015 Riesling Leiwener Laurentiuslay trocken Alte Reben

2015 Riesling Thörnicher Ritsch Grosses Gewächs

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Grosses Gewächs

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg trocken Alte Reben 1896

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Alte Reben 1896

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Kabinett

2015 Riesling Leiwener Laurentiuslay Spätlese

2015 Riesling Thörnicher Ritsch Auslese

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Auslese

2015 Riesling Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Beerenauslese

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