Critic ratings
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
96
–96
Very intense, ripe and sweet fruit aromas with refreshing lime accents in the background characterize the generous nose of the 2013 Frühlingsplätzchen Auslese Gold Capsule (AP number ending with #1914). A piquant attack on the palate leads to a rich and sweet Auslese with a racy acidity and a mineral backbone. This wine is very generous and rich and almost caramel-like in its sweet taste. All of this gives the wine enough material to age over the next 30/40 years.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
96
–96
The auctioned 2013 A.de.L. Riesling from the Auf der Lay parcel in the Frühlingsplätzchen is a fascinatingly pure, precise, fine and expressive mineral wine with very subtle fruit flavors and a cool, flinty nose. The palate is uncompromisingly pure. Sure, there is power but no meat; the minerals conquer the palate easily. This wine offers, if you will, a style in between of the purity and fragrance of the Frühlingsplätzchen and the complexity and power of the Halenberg. It is the purest, salty and piquant Riesling of the estate, a real grand cru and one of the greatest dry German Rieslings on the planet. 240 Magnums were auctioned in Bad Kreuznach and there are still some double magnums.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
95
–95
Lovely deep, complex and mineral on the nose, the 2013 Halenberg Riesling Auslese has dusty and piquant slate aromas along with notes of lemon peel and confit de citron. The aromatic procession on the nose is carried forward on the palate where it combines piquancy with delicacy to achieve an elegance that has a rich, sensual intensity without becoming too sweet. The grippy finish is extremely racy and displays a lingering and extremely stimulating salinity. I would store this Halenberg Auslese for at least 5 if not 10 years and enjoy it for the rest of my life.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
94
–94
The 2013 Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling Auslese has a clear, discreet and noble bouquet delivering the typical aromas of wet red slate and spring flowers along with perfect pineapple, lemon, candied lime peel and grapefruit aromas. The wine (at 8% of alcohol) is very elegant and minerally piquant on the palate such that the sweetness is extremely well hidden or is perceptible more as ripe fruits. This is an excellent, extremely stimulating and delicate Auslese with just one problem: the bottle is far too small for one person alone.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
94
–94
The 2013 Halenberg Riesling Spätlese was harvested with 102° Oechsle 8 days after the Frühlingsplätzchen Spätlese on October 29th and has deeper and darker shaded aromas when compared to its buoyant sister. Dark and slightly smoked slate aromas intertwine with fully ripe yet delicate pineapple aromas on a bouquet that always retains its precision. On the palate the wine is full-flavored, juicy, dense and has a lovely piquant quality that displays the finest ripe Riesling flavors intermixed with mineral spiciness. The persistent finish is pure, piquant and complex. The wine is still very young though already extremely attractive. It will age at least for two decades.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
93
–93
Schönleber's precise and delicate 2013 Frühlingslätzchen Riesling Spätlese (9% alc.) is another wine to look for. Picked on October 21 with 95° Oechsle it is very focused and mineral in its precise offering chilled pineapple aromas. On the palate this is an enormously juicy, salty and piquant light wine with a complex finish and a wonderful drinkability. Absolutely delicious and stimulating in its buoyant nature and lingering salinity it is almost impossible to spit and to buy too much of it.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
92
–92
Sourced in the Frühlingsplätzchen "VDP. Grosse Lage", the 2013 Monzinger Riesling Kabinett is a beautiful, ripe Riesling with raisin aromas accented by springtime spiciness plus herb and slate nuances. This is an extremely sappy and piquant Ode to the Kabinett predicate. With its low alcohol level at 10% and a judicious measure of residual sugar that doesn't make it too sweet but leaves it dry and mineral enough to let you quaff a bottle on your own in less that 30 minutes, you bet! The wine will age for more than a decade. A must buy.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
91
–91
More fruit-concentrated on the nose compared to the Frühlingsplätzchen, the 100% barrel fermented (3500 l oak barrel) 2013 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling trocken is richer with strong mineral notes from the slate and quartzite soils emerging only after a little bit of aeration. This is quite a rich, juicy and full-bodied Riesling with ripe fruit expression and a long mineral finish. It is firmly structured and quite piquant and needs definitely some years to relax.It is still a little bit underdeveloped but has a great potential to age.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
91
–91
The 2013 Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling trocken is the former Spätlese trocken and another selection of the grand cru site and as such was never chaptalized. The grapes are grown in the center of the grand cru on red slate and red clay. According to winemaker Frank Schönleber 2/3 of the must was fermented spontaneously in oak, the rest in stainless steel. The wine starts clear and with a spicy/herbal/mineral aromas on the nose that are underlined by white fruit aromas. Full-bodied and rich with just 12% of alcohol, this is an impressive, creamy-textured wine with freshness, piquancy and persistence. The finish is full of tension, piquancy and intensity. This is a top dry Riesling with true terroir character for a moderate price.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
89
–89
From the cooler parts of the Halenberg grand cru the 2013 Nahe Riesling trocken Mineral is a pure, fresh and herbal scented classic of the estate, a premier cru if you so will, that is harvested earlier than the Grosses Gewächs wines and offers a firm mineral structure with a near dramatic straightforwardness. The acidity is piquant and the mineralty shines through to dominate the bright and citric fruit, but it is still not as juicy as as you find in the grands cru. This is a pure, almost ascetic wine for connoisseurs. A best buy that sells for 13 Euro in Germany.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
88
–88
Sourced from the Frühlingsplätzchen from younger vines of the central part (which is on red slate/loam parcels) and parts with darker and deeper soils, the pale citrus colored 2013 Nahe Riesling Lenz is a medium-bodied, off-dry Gutsriesling with a terrific spring-like character. The wine has a lovely clear and precise floral notes along with herbal/spicy citrus and bright yellow-fleshed fruits that are typical for red slate grown wines. The palate is juicy, well balanced and piquant showing a lovely mix of succulent fruit, finesse and minerality that is very stimulating and round; in short this is delicious! The finish is salty and mineral and quite persistent. Bottled with 13 grams of residual sugar this is just the perfect wine to start the flight into the Schönleber spheres.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
87
–87
Bright yellow in color the 2013 Nahe Riesling Trocken offers attractive fruit flavors of apples, stone fruits and minerals on the nose. The wine is sourced from cooler vineyards extending over 3 kílometers (including vineyards in Monzingen, Weiler and Nussbaum) where the vine roots are mostly in slate soils but also in clay. The 2013 is medium-bodied (11.5% alcohol.) and piquant, quite racy and straight-forward, and really stimulating character to be drunk in between the next 5 years.
robert_parker
2014
Rating:
95
–95
The 2014 Riesling Monzinger Halenberg Auslese offers a very delicate and precise Riesling flavor that does not indicate botrytis, but fully ripe Riesling berries on a slate plate. Enormously juicy and ripe on the palate, this is a piquant and ripe, lovely, pure and sensual-textured wine of great finesse and elegance. The sweetness is just beautiful here and interwoven with the stony and mineral flavors of this extraordinary delicate wine.
robert_parker
2015
Rating:
95
–95
Picked on two days in late October, the 2015 Riesling Monzinger Halenberg Auslese is very clear and fresh on the precise, very well defined nose where pineapple, almond cake, flinty and herbal aromas are displayed. The precision is repeated on the palate, which is crystalline but also creamy due to the lush, ripe and bright fruit. The wine displays great finesse and lingering salinity, which is so typical for the Halenberg. This is a delicious, really stimulating Auslese. Total production: 600 liters.
robert_parker
2008
Rating:
92
–92
The Emrich-Schonleber 2008 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese displays obvious smokiness and honey of botrytis, along with dried fruits and a suggestion of browned, salted butter. Here is one of those 2008s that sooths as it seduces (or vice-versa), and the combination of nut cream, honey, pear butter, and quince paste in this wine’s long finish is adorable. There is just enough sense of fresh fruit vivacity to complement the delicate, almost weightless palate impression. One could make a similar point here as with this year’s Fruhlingsplatzchen Spatlese: it’s polished, pure Auslese with irresistible drinkability today, yet precisely its uncanny balance and levity should directly and positively affect is ability to age for 25 or more 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
robert_parker
2009
Rating:
93
–93
At 8.5% alcohol and entering the realm of botrytis, the Schonlebers’ 2009 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese was harvested October 25 in a portion of its Einzellage that every year is relatively conducive to noble rot, “though I can’t really figure out why that’s so,” remarks Werner Schonleber. Around half the fruit here, however, was healthy and golden, while the most advanced botrytis and the thoroughly-shriveled berries were segregated to inform this year’s T.B.A. Brown spiced apple; almost overripe pear and musk melon; and quince preserves in the nose migrate to a glossy, glycerin-rich palate, joined by salted caramel, marzipan, and hazelnut paste. For all of its confectionary tendencies, this delicate, dreamy, striking Auslese remains lusciously juicy through its luxuriously lingering finish. I suspect that the balance rather gently struck here will be preserved for at least the next 25 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
2010
Rating:
93
–93
Apricot, yellow plum and white currant supply the succulent, rich, yet brightly enervating matrix of Emrich-Schonleber’s 2010 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese, hints of ginger and lime adding to its invigoration and memorably extending its finish. While less strikingly and interactively complex than the corresponding Fruhlingsplatzchen, this is a wine of impeccable balance likely to dazzle repeatedly over the course of the next quarter century.
”Look, the acid levels were almost this high in 1994 – though with much higher yields,” relates Werner Schonleber of 2010, “and yet 1994 was probably my most individual year of the 1990s,” a judgment in which, incidentally, I concur. Musts of extremely high acidity (a couple had pHs under 3.0) were de-acidified – “very cautiously,” notes Frank Schonleber, “leaving plenty of leeway in case one or the other went into malo,” which several Riesling lots spontaneously followed the lead of the estate’s Pinots in doing. Despite high levels of potassium (not to mention, of course, tartaric acid) and a cold winter, there was relatively little precipitation of tartrates at this address. Early picking of the Schonlebers’ Auf der Lay parcel, already with significant botrytis, militated against there being an “A.de.L” bottling this year such as had been essayed – exclusively in magnum – in the two preceding vintages. This is really a year, chez Schonlebers, for Fruhlingsplatzchen as a site to shine, though neither they nor I can offer a hypothesis. Regarding the gap or jump in this year’s line-up from “regular” (though in fact, fantastic) Auslesen to Eiswein, Werner Schonleber commented that given the quality and the paucity of fruit available, “Attempts to segregate a gold capsule Auslese were going to make for (“regular”)Auslese in which something was missing. And we scarcely thought ourselves capable of a Beerenauslese this vintage; the attempt wouldn’t have gone well. We had lovely botrytis, but by no means such concentrated berries.”
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:
93
–93
An Emrich-Schonleber 2011 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese suggests honeydew melon and herbal liqueurs in both high-toned aromatic penetration and expansively, oleaginously mouth-coating, overtly sweet palate presence. Honey, malt, and caramel contribute to the wine’s sense of richness while pointing to its strong botrytis influence. There is an even greater disparity between this wine’s acidity and that of its Fruhlingsplatzchen counterpart than there was between the two corresponding Spatlesen, yet just as there – and even with its more obviously ennobled character – this Halenberg seems no less animated by acidity, and its long finish stimulates as well as soothes. I would plan on following it for at least two decades.
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:
93
–93
The Schonleber 2007 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese shows a metaphorically cooler, more northerly personality – based on apple and pear – than the corresponding Fruhlingsplatzchen, and with less obvious botrytis, although hints of caramel appear here, too. The Halenberg is yet creamier and quite sedate, with subtle suggestions of lime and sea water in its long finish. I concur with Werner Schonleber both that this Halenberg is the more compact and backward of the two Auslesen, as well as that the sites exhibit here a sort of role-reversal, with Fruhlingsplatzchen taking the early lead in dynamism and complexity. Either will be worth 20 years of observation.
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
