Lauer has gone from cult to established blue-chip estate. That’s good. Yet every year we get more orders and (note this) roughly the same amount of wine. That’s not so good. It makes allos a serious headache, especially for the higher-end single-vineyards.
Last year we got killed, so we’re doing our Lauer offering earlier this year… you know, to try and get less killed. Yes, 2015 was/is grand and got the critical love. That said, do NOT miss 2016, seriously. For the Germa-nerd, the wines might even be more thrilling. 2016 presents the same basic architecture of 2015, with all the proportions a bit finer. The wines are bouncier and airier, the acids razor-sharp and the fruit simply saturating.
If 2015 was a sold-out arena rock show, 2016 is Horowitz lighting up Bach at Carnegie Hall. But in a cool sexy way that plays well with millenials.
Find all the wines below with pricing and relevant information. NO ORDER IS GUARANTEED WITHOUT A CONFIRMATION EMAIL FROM US. You will be expected to take your order when it arrives, likely in September or early October. Order deadline is FRIDAY, JULY 14. For more information or to order, please email info@vomboden.com.
Appellation
2016 Lauer “Barrel X” Off Dry
IN STOCK! This is Lauer’s platonic ideal of what a delicately off-dry SAAR Riesling should be, which is to say explosive and perfumed with ripping acids. There ain’t a better wine for the $, period.
Village
2016 Lauer “Senior”
ARRIVING IN JULY One of the greatest values in German white wine, period. This is declassified grand-cru wine, sourced from a parcel of the Kupp with 70+ year old ungrafted vines. In 2016 it is again all but dry; not as dense as the 2015, the 2016 is more finessed, agile, higher-toned.
2016 Lauer Fass 2 Extra Trocken
German wine dork crack – searing citrus, tons of herbal detailing. Very limited – not much ever sees the U.S.
Grand Cru
2016 Lauer Unterstenberg
Consult the map above or click here for fun. “Unterstenberg” is the site is at the bottom of the Kupp. It has fine slate with more water retention and thus a bit more vigorous growth. This is the most masculine and powerful of all the grand crus – broad-shouldered with fine layers of fruit, a deep and textural midpalate with a profound mineral expression.
2016 Lauer Stirn
Consult the map above or click here for fun. “Stirn,” meaning “forehead,” is the counterpoint to Unterstenberg. It is a site exactly 300 feet up, at the top of the Kupp. Everything changes up here – the site is blasted by the wind, very cold and with rocky soils. The vines struggle. The wine that is made here is tensile, soaring. It is high-toned with shavings of lime zest and a packed core of super-fine slate. The damn wine is angelic and while it tends to have an RS in the 30s, the pronounced acidity keep the wine feeling buoyant and edgy. Absolutely bonkers. Stuart Pigott says, “Welcome to the pleasure dome!”
2016 Lauer Kern
Consult the map above or click here for fun. “Kern” is named for the person who cleared this site in the early 20th century. You’ll note from the map that Kern extends from the top to the bottom of the vineyard, thus one has a wine that is very complete. It shows some of the power of the Unterstenberg with some of the tension of the Stirn.
2016 Lauer Neuenberg
Consult the map above or click here for fun. “Neuenberg” is one of the cherry parcels of the Kupp, tucked further into the valley than Stirn and Unsterstenberg. The wine tends to be perhaps the most exotic of Lauer’s grand crus – there is a textural, glycerin quality to the wine that gives it incredible length. It is a monument to what Saar Riesling can be.
Prädikats
2016 Lauer Kupp Kabinett Fass 8
The Prädikat wines are pre-selections from all over the Kupp. They flaunt Lauer’s style – shocking saturation and vivid fruit countered by a slate-inflected whiplash of acidity.
2016 Lauer Lambertskirch Kabinett
“Lambertskirch” is a historic site along the Saar, near the Schonfels, that Lauer has recently cleared. The first vintage was in 2014. And while the vines are very young, the yields here are draconian and the wine has simply inconceivable density. A testament to the quality of the terroir that such young vines can bring forth such tensile balance and vivid stoniness.
2016 Lauer Kupp Spätlese Fass 7
The Prädikat wines are pre-selections from all over the Kupp. They flaunt Lauer’s style – shocking saturation and vivid fruit countered by a slate-inflected whiplash of acidity.