Carl Loewen Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken Alte Reben 1896

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Picked around a week earlier than his corresponding dry wines of the vintage from the Laurentiuslay or Ritsch, Loewen’s 2010 Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling trocken Alte Reben 1896 (for more about which bottling consult my comments in issue 192) is another formidably dense expression of its vintage, site and vines but one lacking the clarity or elegance that can accrue to any of these at their best. Smoky, crushed stone and citrus oil aromatics segue – joined by peach and musk melon – onto a full, oily-textured palate, its piquancy underscored by 12.5% alcohol in a heat-free but relatively bitterly persistent finish. I’d like to believe that this just needs time or was showing relatively obdurately on the sole occasion of our acquaintance (when I tasted it from two bottles), but I can’t find any reason to. I would monitor this carefully if planning to hold onto bottles for more than 3-4 years. “Nobody knew what to do” in the fall of 2010, maintains Karl-Josef Loewen, “because nobody had every witnessed anything like such a vintage.” He took all but a few of his musts down by one and a half grams of acid using calcium carbonate, which still left them plenty high. “I suspect that if you analyze my wines this year – just as with many classic Mosel Rieslings of a bygone era – you’ll find that some harbor a bit of lactic acid; but I did nothing to encourage malo and none of my wines experienced any profound malo-lactic transformation. What’s more, given the low acidity we are expecting in 2011, I would not want to be one of those growers who invited malo-lactic bacteria to have the run of my cellar. But this much is certain,” he adds: “if you had green, under-ripe aromas in the must this year, then you were never going to get rid of them by any means.” Loewen tends to welcome botrytis, and I can’t help wondering whether that has proven the Achilles heel for some of his drier 2010s, for which berries are generally crushed (this year at times foot-trodden) and given up to 12 hours of skin contact before pressing, techniques that, he acknowledges, should generally presuppose essentially healthy fruit.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300