Dr Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling GG 2019

Dr Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling GG, Mosel, Germany, 2019

The ungrafted vines from which we produce this great Riesling are up to 120 years old. They reside in a plot called “Urglück,” a steep site that rises steeply directly behind the village in the heart of the Würzgarten. The vines grow in red volcanic and slate soil that gives the wine aromas of spice along with tropical fruits, such as pineapple and mango. The must is fermented spontaneously in a 1,000-liter barrel and sits on the full lees for twelve months. Hand harvested. 

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"From volcanic soils, the 2019 Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling GG Alte Reben is beautifully clear, fresh and subtle on the precise and highly finessed bouquet of slate, iodine and herbal scents. The warm and elegant Riesling fruit intertwined with very fine herbal notes represents the very best of this exceptional grand cru in its original, much smaller size. Almost entirely sourced from the Urglück, this is a lush and intense, enormously powerful yet restrained and slatey Würzgarten GG with crystalline acidity that leads to a long, intense and still slightly astringent finish with refreshing lemon features. This wine is still developing and has the potential to become another giant of the vintage."

96/100 points, Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate, October 2020.

Full bottle 1,268 g. Natural fermentation in oak. Aged 12 months on the lees. From a vineyard that was classified in 1868. They own 7 ha, and of that 3.5 ha are on their own roots, never replanted – all more than 100 years old. Fermented with indigenous yeast in big old barrels. They sulphur after fermentation to avoid malo (we don’t like malo) and then the wine sits for 12 months on full yeast, no racking until October and then bottled in November. No bâtonnage.

"Listening to Ernie Loosen is a bit like listening to a hypnotist, and I did worry if I was falling under some kind of spell. Hence the importance of coming back to taste the wines without his persuasive personality in the screen weaving his wonderful story magic. But thisdoessmell spicy! Has muscle and density; dry but not wincingly so (thinking of you, Jim Barry Florita 2017). The fruit more quince than citrus; root ginger; kumquat; golden cherries and nectarine. Even a little nuttiness. Very complex. It doesn’t have the chiselled severity of the Florita but it has thoroughbred grace and race and precision. And the fruit intensity is so pure that I had goosebumps from my spine down to my wrists. This will age and age, but my goodness I would struggle not to drink it now." Drink 2021-2032

17.5/20 points, Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com, August 2021