11/19/25 -

A compilation of Rieslings I have tasted recently and LOVED, just in time to make it to your Thanksgiving tables!

Nothing goes quite so well with a Thanksgiving meal as Riesling. Traditional meal or not, for many, Thanksgiving is a day-long marathon of rich foods, so why not cut all of that with wines with ripping acidity, freshness, and in certain cases, a touch of sweetness. I feel very lucky that I get the chance to taste wines quite frequently, so when deciding on what Rieslings to include today I thought back to the past few weeks of any wines I remembered standing out, and it turns out most of those wines had  "yum," "delish," or even "wow" written next to them. A few of these standouts are ones that have traditionally been on the shelves here at CSW, like a new vintage of Clemens Busch and Liter bottles from Gunther Steinmetz, but we have some that are less familiar as well. Everything will be available to ship or pick-up in store beginning Friday so we can make sure you have your Riesling fill in time for Thanksgiving! Click on the link at the bottom of this article to view the entire collection. Below are some bios on highlighted producers in the collection. 
 
-Hanna Krilov Cohen 

Rudolf Trossen and his wife Rita (pictured at top of email) met at just 16 years old and they immediately shared the same instinct of wanting to "save the planet" and that meant starting at home, in their own vines with biodynamic farming. In 1978 they did just that, and although it took some time for the soils to come back to life, today the Trossens are making wines full of energy and soul. Rudolf remembers spraying chemicals on the family vines as a young man and hating it, his time in viticultural school only continued his anger as he mentions, "They teach you the material side - but, just like a coin has two sides, there’s a more spiritual side to wine. We work with living things - vines - but in school, they had no clue about life." All these experiences helped lead Rudolf to his methods that he continues today. In the mid 2000's he began experimenting with making wines with no sulfur which he proudly still makes when he can. Those wines are bottled in crown cap so that "nothing goes in and nothing goes out," as Trossen says. You will also notice that the no sulfur bottlings have labels in black and white while those with some sulfur have colorful ones. Today we have 3 wines from him to highlight what stood out when I tasted a large portion of the lineup last week! These are singular wines of clarity and energy. Each quite different from the rest with its own personality, but they all carry a vibrancy that I love in Riesling.
Click here to watch a video of aerial footage of the Trossen vineyards.

If you are the type of person who is constantly looking for more acid in your wines look no further then Ludes! Hermann Ludes started his eponymous estate in the 1950s and was often "off the radar" to many. They are located in the village of Thörnich in the upper-section of the Mosel, somewhat off the beaten path, and the second generation of the estate (also named Hermann) does not speak English and made no attempt to market himself or his wines. In 2017, Julian Ludes began working alongside his uncle Hermann and represents the third generation of winemaking genius!  Julian has helped to market the family's wines and is continuing to make incredible Rieslings of tension and precision just like his Uncle has been doing for decades. There is something magical in these wines, they always have a perfect balance of acidity and fruit, the kind where there is residual sugar, yet the acid is so high you are so happy to find that tiny bit of sweetness on the end. They have a beautiful style of salty-minerality paired with citrus zest and stone fruit. We have a duo of their wines today that show off the beauty and precision of Upper-Mosel Riesling.

Anna and Stephan Reimann are both from the Lower Rhine in Germany and separately had deep interests in biology. Anna studied horticulture and then did a harvest in Chile that lead her directly to the wine world. She then went on to take viticuluture and enology courses in Montpellier and worked harvests in Burgundy and New Zealand before returning home to Germany, but this time ended up in the Mosel. Stephan and Anna met in school and after years of working internationally, finally got their chance to purchase an old estate in the Saar and never looked back. The couple purchased Weingut Cantzheim in 2016 and immediately began conversions to organic farming. Their first vintage came in 2017 and they have been making classic, powerful Rieslings ever since! The wines lean towards a riper and rounder style here. That being said, there is still nice acid and balance in the wines. 

>>>VIEW THE WINES<<<