95 Stephan Reinhardt - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"From slate soils with calcareous parts, the 2014 Riesling Uhlen L 'VDP Grosse Lage' (picked in the lieut-dit Laubach) opens with a deep and cool, fascinating, yet still somewhat discreet and dusty/stony, herbal bouquet. This wine is rich and intense on the palate, with concentrated and juicy fruit, as well as an impressive structure and silkiness. It has perfectly integrated acidity and is a highly complex and expressive Riesling, with an enormously long and complex finish. Still some yeasty flavors in the aftertaste. This is another milestone in the Mosel in general and of this avant-garde estate. Highly recommended, also for Burgundy lovers. His 2013s were already great, but Reinhard Löwestein's 2014 Rieslings from Winningen and Hatzenport in the Terassenmosel are simply outstanding, and belong doubtlessly to the very best in the whole Mosel valley. They are all dry and much more precise and stimulating than in former years when botrytis was more tolerated than it is today. It's a miracle how brilliant and tension-filled the 2014s are, although there was a lot of rot as well in the Terrassenmosel. Since Löwenstein does not use any botryticides, healthy grapes zones are extremely important and need fussy vineyard work throughout the vegetation period. It's Reinhard Löwenstein's special provocative humor when he says, "2014 was an easy vintage: You just had to throw away everything that was brown. Most of these grapes were already vinegar. As a result, we yielded 30 hectoliters per hectare, whereas normally we aim for 60 hectoliters per hectare." The grapes were picked in small boxes (which are still rarely seen in the Mosel) between September 25 and October 28. We were 30 people and our selections resulted in no more than 1,000 liters at the end of each day." The boxes were cooled down before the grapes were being processed. They were macerated for 12 hours on average and pressed during eight hours before the musts were fermented with indigenous yeasts in 2,400 to 3,000 liter oak casks in between two months. They were kept on the full lees before being racked at the end of June of the following year, and bottled at the end of July. With young cellar master Kathrin Starker Reinhard and Conny Löwenstein, they seem to have a top solution for the future of the estate, which the couple brought up from almost nothing to world-class level in 37 years. Since their daughter, Sarah Löwenstein (whom I saw interning at Zind-Humbrecht last summer) has already signalized to take over the future of Heymann-Löwenstein, the beautiful modern winery between historic houses seems to safe. The domaine has somewhat reduced its holdings and cultivates 12.5 hectares of Riesling and a bit of Pinot Noir (see the spectacular Pinot co-production with Hanspeter Ziereisen that I reviewed in the last issue #222) in steepest, mostly terraced, horizontally lined vineyards with high-density planting in Winningen and Hatzenport."