Critic ratings
robert_parker
2020
Rating:
91
–91
From younger vines in the Niederberg, Schönleber’s 2020 Riesling trocken Mineral is bright and pure yet also intense and mineral on the characterful and flinty/stony nose. Pure and enormously fresh, this is a lean but tensioned and quite racy dry Riesling with grip and tension on the finish. This is no Riesling for hedonists but for Riesling aficionados. The wine is precise like a razor and fresh like an oyster should be. Good finish with intense fruit aromas and lemon freshness. 12.5% alcohol. Tasted at the domain in July 2021.
robert_parker
2021
Rating:
94
–94
The 2021 Riesling trocken Mineral is very pure but intense and beautifully coolish on the concentrated and dense nose with excitingly deep and mineral notes of crushed stones and oyster shells. It is very deep and generous in all its serenity and discreet ripeness. On the palate, this is a full-bodied, tight and powerful, enormously saline and tensioned dry Riesling with enormous depth and concentration. Just 12% stated alcohol. This a great wine for a low price (15.5 euros). Natural cork. 12% stated alcohol. Tasted at the domaine in August 2022.
robert_parker
2014
Rating:
91
–91
Werner Schönleber describes the 2014 Riesling Trocken Mineral, which is sourced from vineyards around the Halenberg grand cru, has saltiness combined with accessibility, due to the smooth, unruffled acidity. The wine shows a clear and stony, mineral and flinty bouquet, and excellently reflects the Schönleber Riesling type. Medium-bodied, very fine and compact on the palate, with ripe but bright fruit flavors, this is a highly elegant, intense and stunningly expressive dry Riesling at this price point. The finish is very long and finely mineral. This is a Best Buy for all lovers of serious dry Riesling. It's on 1er Cru level for sure.
robert_parker
2018
Rating:
90
–90
The 2018 Riesling Trocken Mineral is clear and fresh on the flinty/mineral nose. Lush and round on the crystalline and elegant palate, this is a powerful and salty-mineral Riesling with concentrated stone fruit flavors, and it reflects the vintage as well as the stony terroir around the Halenberg. Elegant and fresh, even fine and piquant, but powerful. Tasted in July 2019.
robert_parker
2017
Rating:
92
–92
The 2017 Riesling Trocken Mineral is intense and elegant yet still reductive on the creamy and yeasty nose. Round and creamy on the palate, this is a fine, very classic Nahe Riesling with great mineral expression and lingering, highly stimulating salinity. A gorgeous wine. Tasted in June 2019.
robert_parker
2008
Rating:
90
–90
The Emrich-Schonleber 2008 Riesling trocken Mineral incorporates fruit from parcels in the lower Halenberg and adjacent sites. Already in the nose it indeed leads with mineral themes, in this instance a very Chablis-like combination of fusil and struck stone notes. A palpable sense of extract and satiny texture combine with luscious peach and grapefruit to keep the wine’s sense of stoniness and hints of gooseberry tartness from pulling it into austerity. This impressive Riesling isn’t as winsome today as the two other generic Rieslings, but it will prove deliciously versatile over the next 4-5 years and probably be more generous early this year than it was when I saw it last September.
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
robert_parker
2009
Rating:
90
–90
Informed by fruit from some moderately steep slopes in the Fruhlingsplatzchen and Halenberg as well from the cool Rosenberg behind the village, the Schonlebers’ 2009 Riesling trocken Mineral manages to maintain a delightful sense of buoyancy even at 12.5% alcohol. This displays a deep sense of salinity one often associates with quartzite-rich sites, and which here threads its way invigoratingly and saliva-inducingly through a stream of lemon, grapefruit, white peach, and red berries. Cooling high-toned suggestions of mint and oregano add to the sense of refreshment in this long-finishing Riesling that ought to perform well for at least the next 4-5 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
robert_parker
2011
Rating:
88
–88
The Schonlebers’ 2011 Riesling trocken Mineral lives up to its name already in the nose, with evocations of smoke and crushed stone that then follow on a firm but juicy palate. Notes of apple pip lend piquancy to a persistent finish but also add to the wine’s relatively austere overall impression. I would plan on utilizing this over the next 2-3 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
robert_parker
2007
Rating:
91
–91
Representing Schonleber’s idea of the next step up in dry Riesling from his basic generic and – as its name suggests – a closer reflection of his top sites, the 2007 Riesling Mineral smells something like Saar-meets-Chablis in its suggestion of lemon and sea breeze with oily crushed stone. Citrus and red fruit refresh while nut oils and wet stone add depth. The finish here manages to both sooth and invigorating. So, if your pocketbook doesn’t permit you to purchase Emrich-Schonleber’s vineyard-designated dry Rieslings, don’t feel too bad, and why not be one of the first to actually sock away some bottles of this outstanding value (which incorporates fruit from both Fruhlingsplatzchen and Halenberg) for 5-7 years and demonstrate its true potential?
To say that Werner and son Frank Schonleber have been on a roll lately must count as an understatement (and that applies to 2008, too). Two heads are better than one, no doubt, plus the advantages of accumulated wisdom and acreage – the family is filling-in what was once a decidedly, in places depressingly patchy landscape by buying up prime parcels from retiring vintners – are obvious. The Schonlebers went over their vineyards in early October to pull out some botrytis that had already accumulated and to thin their crop, and began seriously harvesting Riesling after the 10th. The estate’s vines were largely spared savage but capricious hail that rained down on parts of the Fruhlingsplatzchen. Werner Schonleber draws a stylistic comparison with the 2002 vintage, which he convincingly demonstrated with several bottles.
Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463