Germany · Nahe · White · Still · wine-wine
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| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2022 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 |
Rating: 87 –87
The 2019 Riesling Lenz is clear, fresh and flinty on the beautifully reductive nose that delivers spring and crushed slate to the nose. Round and charming on the palate, the 2019 tastes sweeter than the 2018 last year but is dense, elegant and provided with aging potential. Tasted in May 2020.
Rating: 92 –92
From red soils but not only from the Frühlingsplätzchen, the 2020 Riesling Lenz is very clear, precise and floral on the refreshing pure and flinty/stony nose. Filigreed and juicy on the palate, this is a stimulating piquant and seriously mineral dry Riesling with terroir character. The juicy fruit is very delicate and will gain even more charm with bottle age. Just 11.5% alcohol with a serious degree of complexity. Tasted at the domain in July 2021.
Rating: 92 –92
From reddish colored, weathered slate soils, the 2021 Riesling Lenz is pure, fresh and mineral on the nose that reflects the quartzite elements of the terroir and gives some flinty spiciness. Lush and round on the palate, this is generous and salty-savory Riesling with sensual and charming fruit and a long, savory and saline finish. Fabulous even at this early stage. Natural cork. 11.5% stated alcohol. Tasted at the domaine in August 2022.
Rating: 89 –89
Bottled with 14.7 grams of residual sugar, the 2014 Riesling Lenz is a deliciously light, piquant and juicy, well balanced and aromatic Riesling with a stimulatingly (off-) dry finish. This is the wine to quaff on at parties and at dinner parties. It's simply lovely in its delicacy and juicy fruitiness.
Rating: 89 –89
Taking halbtrocken off the label was the right move, remarks Schonleber of his 2008 Riesling Lenz and its predecessors, which previously were labeled Kabinett halbtrocken. This way, he explains, the question of analysis and legal categories doesn’t arise; you can get German cellar door customers to taste it, and can close the sale. All this is still a bit revolutionary in today’s still trocken-obsessed Germany! The wine tastes dry, but the bit of sugar that’s in it reinforces the fleshy, luscious side of grapefruit, orange, and white peach. At the same time, this is even saltier than the corresponding generic trocken, and glossier in texture. It misses that wine’s lift and transparency, but is a luscious mouthful of impeccably-balanced Riesling that clearly reflects its vintage and place of origin and offers excellent value for enjoying over the next 4-5 years. Werner and Frank Schonleber are another Nahe dream team whose amazing performance in 2007 has been equaled in 2008. “I wouldn’t call it a vintage with the emphasis on fruit,” says Werner Schonleber, “but rather on a pronounced, saline minerality. And there was no great selection of nobly sweet wine this year, because every three or four days it would rain at least a little bit.” He offers as “a very simple explanation” of this pronounced minerality the classic one adduced by growers (whether or not scientifically supportable) that the vines better “assimilate mineral stuff” when mild weather and plenty of moisture grease – as it were – the wheels of plant metabolism. And such vintages always boast measurably high levels of dry extract; the question remains, has that – as most growers believe – anything to do with their expression of flavors for which we feel compelled to employ mineral vocabulary? Importers: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463
Rating: 90 –90
The dry-tasting but legally halbtrocken, 11.5% alcohol Emrich-Schonleber 2009 Riesling Lenz displays a sheer succulence of citrus, tart red berry, apple, and white peach that goes beyond that of the corresponding generic trocken. A hint of pistachio lends underlying richness as both soothing and refreshment are handily delivered. An alliance of spice and saline, stony, peaty, as well as seemingly crystalline mineral impingement renders this buoyant, elegant Riesling invigoratingly and almost compulsively next sip- and saliva-inducing. It ought to perform with versatility over the next 4-6 years. Werner and Frank Schonleber harvested through nearly the entire month of October, and noted that levels of sugar and total acidity remained fairly constant, while flavors kept improving and malic acid diminishing in favor of tartaric. Speaking of improving, it’s hard for these two vintners to much-improve their by now phenomenal batting average, but no Riesling lover is likely to suffer the least disappointment by buying bottles of Emrich-Schonleber 2009s. Especially at its dry end, this is a collection to describe which seems to call for an extended mineral vocabulary that doesn’t even exist in English or German! And in nobly sweet echelons, the small amount of Riesling the Schonlebers rendered is strikingly successful and informed by an ample if mysterious measure of sheer juiciness. About the absence of Eiswein, Frank Schonleber notes: “We had the feeling that ripeness had simply advanced too far in 2009 to justify leaving any grapes hanging in anticipation of frost.” Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463
Rating: 90 –90
The generosity of the vintage and barely off-dry, fruit-focused style associated with this cuvee combined to render Schonlebers’ 2011 Riesling Lenz – picked in the Fruhlingsplatzchen – particularly successful. Fresh apple, quince and grapefruit wreathed in diverse floral perfume and piquantly accented by almond and fruit pit make for an attractive nose as well as a buoyant and persistent palate impression of irresistible allure. Plan to enjoy this excellent value over the next 4-6 years. Veteran Werner Schonleber stresses the role played in 2011’s high quality by tiny drought-impacted berries as well as, naturally, the growing season’s early start; generally cool nighttime temperatures; and five weeks of ideal weather from mid-September on. That small berry size obviated any green harvest, but there was a substantial “pre-harvest” of Riesling – destined largely for generic bottlings – from September 26, with the two Pinots being picked immediately thereafter. The main harvest for Riesling commenced October 3, lasting for two weeks. Like many estates, botrytis arrived here directly on the heels of the heavy rain that fell around September 10-12, but dried to ideal purity and fineness to serve for ennobling concentration without overtly fungal character or less desirable concurrent infections. Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463