The Luckerts work what has to be one of the oldest producing vineyards in all of Germany, a Silvaner vineyard called Creutz that was planted sometime in the 1870s.
Think about this: Someone was planting these vines at about the same time Alexander Graham Bell was working on a prototype of the telephone. Thomas Edison was working on the light bulb.
Creutz is only about 600 vines producing around 350 bottles a year. Last year, Stephan Rheinhardt of The Wine Advocate gave the 2015 edition 95 points. You may or may not care at all about scores. That’s fine. However, what is interesting about this is the elevation of Silvaner, at least numerically, to a level equal to that of the recognized noble grapes of the world: Riesling, Chardonnay, etc.
Yes, most Silvaner blows. Most Silvaner is also harvested early with yuge yields (yuge!), commercially fermented, sterile-filtered and forced out into the market way too early. But when it’s made with care, it can be a profound wine. I’ve seen glimpses of god in the Silvaners of Luckert. Someone smarter than I once said that Silvaner is like Chardonnay without fruit. Luckert’s Silvaners are like Chablis from another mother.
The Luckert estate, all 17 hectares, is a family affair, run by brothers Ulrich and Wolfgang Luckert and son Philipp. The general vibe here is a thoughtful, calming patience; a lot about the estate and the wines remind me of Nikolaihof.
The Luckert boys are certified organic. Every single wine is made exactly the same way: a slow, cool, natural fermentation, long lees contact and elevage in neutral wood. The cellar is a labyrinth of barrels. All the wines go through malolactic and are bottled unfined/unfiltered.
All this might make one think the wines are gooey, cumbersome, lower-acid affairs, which couldn’t be further from the truth. They can be textural, yet there is always a lightness to them, like a blanket made out of multiple layers of satin. The wines can have cut, a surprising tension. They call the style “fränkisch trocken,” which I’ll go ahead and translate to really damn dry. The flavors are deep and detailed, yet fresh and cerebral, mineral, dried herbs, smoke, savory notes.
While the Silvaners are king here, the Luckert boys make a bonkers Sauvignon Blanc (says someone who for the most part detests Sauvignon Blanc) and a Gelber Muskateller that is mineral and linear.
THE OFFER
The 2016ers have just arrived and are in stock. The Creutz is being offered as a pre-arrival, landing stateside sometime in November. We get a few cases so let’s say a 6-bottle allo is max.
2016 Luckert Silvaner: about $22
Estate level, regular Burgundy bottle
2016 Luckert Silvaner “Sulzfelder”: about $28
Sulzfeld is the village-level, older vines, longer lees contact. More detail and depth – more concentration. NOTE/WARNING: Bocksbeutel bottle!
2016 Luckert Sauvignon Blanc: about $28
Mineral and racy – silly good.
PRE-ARRIVAL!
2016 Luckert Silvaner “Creutz”: about $155. Yes, that’s $155 a bottle. Yes, that’s $$$.
Produced from around 600 ungrafted vines planted in 1870; around 350 bottles made a year.