Maybe we should preface the good news regarding the arrival of Lauer’s 2023ers (arriving any moment!) with a bit of bad news, not to sour the mood but to set expectations and explain what will be a quirky release schedule.
In April, many of Germany’s vineyards were damaged greatly by frosts; side valleys and the cooler regions not protected by larger bodies of water were affected the most. The Saar was hit hard.
At the moment, Lauer estimates he lost around 60% of the 2024 harvest. He wrote to me it’s the worst they’ve had since 1981.
I don’t exactly know how to talk about this; it all feels beyond my pay grade. I’m just the schmuck importer who shows up a few times a year and smiles.
And to some extent, my analysis doesn’t really matter. The consequences will ripple forward – they will be felt, literally, for years.
Talking business, to deal with the coming scarcity, we are going to release only some of Lauer’s 2023 cuvées this year, holding back others for release next year (when we will have a serious scarcity of 2024ers). This offering therefore represents something of an abridged offer. To bolster up our short list of wines, Lauer was kind enough to release a small bit of one of his top dry bottlings from 2022 – the premier cru bottling “Ayler 1G.” More on this below.
Depending on what this fall’s vintage delivers in the end, this could be the last time you see certain cuvées until the 2025ers are released in 2026.
The good news is that the wines are truly superb. Lauer’s collection is simply a do-not-miss highlight of the vintage. I never want to take these sorts of things for granted: even giants sometimes stumble. Yet the cooler side valley of the Saar seems to have benefited in the warm 2023 vintage. The valley’s famous winds kept things cleaner and the acids higher. Lauer did not miss the chance to put his stamp on 2023.
To some extent, the collection defies the vintage.
If there is a heady, perfumed opulence that threads its way through many of the wines of 2023, Lauer’s bottlings were some of the only wines on our March and April tasting trips that felt restrained, almost austere. They are savory and über-mineral – they have a truly supernal clarity to them. There is more soil here than in many vintages; you taste the site(s).
The generous water of the vintage (a saving grace after the horribly dry year of 2022) brought plenty of nutrients into the wines; the fermentations were powerful and quick. Therefore we also have one of the driest vintages at Lauer. For the first time ever “Senior” fermented dry (it stopped with 10 grams residual sugar) – it can be legally be called “Trocken.” Lauer’s “Unterstenberg” is dry as well, for only the second time. The wine is so layered and complex, smoke and mineral, flower and soil. It has punch… and grip. The same is true of the “Neuenberg,” a wine that normally has a fierce glaze to it. In 2023 the wine has density and grip, but also a lightness, even a delicacy.
The Saar, at least in Lauer’s deft hands in 2023, is expansive and compact.
Again and again and again tasting Lauer’s wines, I think to myself: There is no one else in Germany who makes wines like this.
Wine is time, and if we are going to have to deal with the loss of 2024 – for the moment we can focus on celebrating 2023. And there is much to be celebrated here.
As per normal, we have notes on all the wines currently being released below. So please let us know what you’d like. Email us at orders@vomboden.com and we’ll do our best to connect you with a local wine shop that can help!
For the moment we cannot offer no No. 1, No. 3, Kern or Stirn. We hope to have tiny quantities to release in early 2025.
the 2023er Lauer collection
village level
2023 Lauer Ayler Village Level No. 25 Trocken ~$30 (screwcap)
No. 25 is Lauer’s highest-level dry village Riesling sourced from two sites (Scheidterberg and Rauberg) that circle around the backside of the village. Historically a bit chilly, these sites are now coming into a glorious place – the jaw-dropping quality of “Barrel X” is a testament to these sites. For 2023 this wine is crystalline and bouyant and wildly refreshing.
2023 Lauer Ayler Village Level No. 6 “Senior” Trocken ~$32
This for me is one of the *great* GREAT white wine deals in the world – within the German pantheon it is right there with Keller’s “von der Fels” and Emrich-Schönleber’s “Mineral” as truly Grand Cru wines that sell for 50% of what they probably should. For 2023, the “Senior” is a dry wine (legally Trocken with only ten grams RS), yet the extreme density of the wine and concentration give it a certain polish. Perhaps more than most wines in Lauer’s stable, the 2023 “Senior” is a wine that sits perfectly poised between auster and mineral, and generous and heady, perfumes of stone fruit and citrus. Absolutely spectacular.
1er Cru
2022 Lauer Ayler 1G Trocken ~$42
Note this is the single 2022 offering in this list. Most estates, including Lauer, hold back quantities of certain wines for fun, for a rainy day, or because they just feel like the wine needs more time. In the case of this wine, it was held back for all of these reasons. A small tranche is being released to us now simply to fill up this offer a bit. Feel free to review my thoughts on Lauer’s 2022ers, readable here. I *love* them.
Grand Cru
2023 Lauer Grand Cru “Unterstenberg” ~$48
Over the 15+ years I’ve been closely following Florian’s wines the Unterstenberg (sourced from the lower part of the Kupp mountain, “unter” the “berg”) has shed sugar, from a bit under 20, to then 15 and even lower. Once again, for 2023, this wine is legally dry at around 9 grams residual sugar. I love it in this dry / drier form, with the schmaltzy, glycerin depth of the mid-palate and the profound, smoky savory quality (found in many of Lauer’s 2023ers). This is a serious damn bottle of wine and one of the highlights of the collection.
2023 Lauer Grand Cru “Neuenberg” ~$58
The “Neuenberg” too slimmed down a lot this year; in fact, it is for the first time (I believe?) it is dry, with only 9 grams of residual sugar. The wine is sourced from a cherry parcel in the Grand Cru Kupp, one that sees the cool morning sun as well as the warmer afternoon sun and, situated as it is at the bottom of the slope, it can often have a bit of mist or fog lingering about. While normally Lauer might include a bit of early botrytis, for 2023 there is none. In fact, Lauer did multiple, strict passes through the site to pick only 100% clean grapes. The result is one of the lightest-ever feeling Neuenbergs. This is a bonkers wine; it is also always one of Lauer’s rarest wines.
Prädikats
2023 Lauer Grand Cru Kupp Kabinett No. 8 ~$38
Another great, great Lauer Kupp Kabi; soaring citrus and stone fruit, a muscular ten grams of acidity slicing open the wine to reveal a super-polished mineral core, salty like an ocean breeze. This is the Saar at its best.
2023 Lauer Grand Cru Schonfels Kabinett No. 111 ~$58
Here we present only the third Kabinett Lauer has ever made from the Schonfels vineyard. Always, always – no matter if this is dry of off dry – you taste the site. Always, always, one of my favorite wines of the vintage.
2023 Lauer Ayler Spätlese No. 77 ~$38
While everyone yanks the wheel to the right, doing ever-more dry wines, Lauer holds his own course, providing for us new treasures for our campaign: “Spätlese is the new Kabinett.” Some say Spätlese is the heart of the vintage; I’m not 100% sure but this is delicious, light and zingy and refreshing. Dinner Spätlese – not for dessert.
2023 Lauer Grand Cru Kupp Spätlese No. 7 ~$43
The epitome of delicacy in a Spätlese. It is in no way a dry wine, yet the tart and salty vibrations might make parts of your brain think it is? This is supremely focused and clear, with a slim form attenuated into something almost gossamer. Just outrageous. Again, dinner Spätlese – not for dessert.
2023 Lauer Grand Cru Kupp Auslese No. 10 375ml Half-Bottles ~$43
2023 Lauer Grand Cru Kupp Auslese No. 10 750ml Bottles ~$68
There is not a lot of Auslese in 2023 (he made only 400 liters of this wine in total); it is (the theme continues) airy and light, a “drinky” Auslese that one can also meditate upon. Poetry that is easy to drink. Only a few cases for the U.S. so go crazy.