Great Growths and Great Owls: Top Wines from Lauer and Weiser-Künstler

4/23/15 -

(The dizzying pitch of the Schoenfels vineyard drops straight down to the Saar river.)

2013 in the Mosel was tricky, a vintage made difficult primarily from rain during the harvest, but if there is one takeaway from the story of the vintage, it's that results varied widely from grower to grower -- and it's possible that Florian Lauer made the best 2013ers of anyone in the region.

Lauer was successful largely because he began picking earlier than most, when the grapes were at 75 Oechsle (18-19 degrees Brix), which is low for recent years, but about Kabinett level for most of the Saar's history. Most growers waited for more ripeness and for the rains to stop -- but they never did, and with a lot of fruit already on the ground, many harvests lasted only a few days. Florian's early start, however, was crucial, and he was able to extend his harvest from the first week in October through the end of the month. Besides this great advantage, the bright acids of the vintage suit his style quite well. Constructed with a bit more meat on their bones, a citrusy lift adds a stunning amount of complexity and a three-dimensional quality across the lineup.

Weiser-Künstler's dry offerings by contrast, including their top Ellergrub GE (Grosse Eule or Great Owl, a play on the VDP's GG/Great Growth designation), are more raw, but fabulously so. Thrilling and expressive, they are as distinctive and pure as ever, vivid and with many years of life ahead of them. Though 2013 was difficult for most, the 80 to 110 year-old ungrafted vines like those of Gaispfad and Ellergrub are a huge asset, as is the focused, careful work of Alexandra Künstler and Konstantin Weiser that seems to improve with each vintage, regardless of the challenges. Jonathan Kemp