Stirn tends to be one of the most nervous, linear and soaring of all of Lauer’s wines. It rarely ferments much past 30 grams of residual sugar per liter, thus it certainly is an off-dry Riesling. And yet, because of the extraordinarily high acidity (and low pH), the wine never tastes very sweet. In fact, the razor-sharp grip and density of the wine can make it feel almost dry, at least on the rather gripping finish. For what it’s worth, I believe this is one of Florian’s – and one of the Saar’s – most profound expressions of Riesling.
-importer notes (Vom Boden)
"A lovely wine, supple and harmonious, with multilayered raspberry and cherry flavors that mix with brown baking spices and a hint of mineral as this builds richness and tension toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2030. 495 cases made."
Absolutely nuts-o wine in 2022 – these are maybe the best Kabinetts Lauer has ever made? Which makes zero sense after 2021, I understand this, but still… it’s the lightness. And to prove just how absolutely nuts Lauer is, he made two Fuders of this wine and did not like the combined wine, so he is bottling them with separate AP numbers. Note: I have no idea what we’re getting and we are not going to make a stink about this – and you shouldn’t either. But what is beautiful about this is Lauer’s unwillingness to follow any ideology. Sometimes he finds blending casks better – sometimes not. And so here, two different Kabinetts.
Another bad-ass wine and one of the inspirations for our new campaign: “Spätlese is the new Kabinett.” I ask Florian how it’s selling. He says, “good,” and then adds this funny but honest line: “The Spätlese isn’t sweet here.” Seventy-four grams of residual sugar and it tastes almost dry. I don’t understand anything.