Peter Lauer, Grand Cru Unterstenberg 2020

The style at Lauer is 180 degrees from his famous Saar neighbors, Egon Müller and Hanno Zilliken – the focus is on dry and off-dry Rieslings as opposed to the residual sugar (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese) wines of the latter two. Yet the hallmarks are similar: purity, precision, rigor, mineral. While the great majority of wines are sourced from the solid hillside of the Ayler Kupp, this single mountain is really an intricate tapestry of parcels and sub-parcels. Lauer bottles based on “fass”, or cask, numbers that are often aligned with the names of pre-1971 vineyard names. However, one shouldn’t take the fass numbers too seriously; they are based on the parcels that historically went into these fass and the style of wine they most often produced. One example, “Fass 6 – Senior” is based on a selection that Florian’s grandfather made every year for his personal consumption. On this barrel, he would write “Senior.” According to Florian, nine times out of ten, his grandfather would pick Fass 6, which held wine sourced from the western-most region of the Kupp. Thus, today, the wine from this parcel is called “Fass 6 – Senior.”

Over the thirteen years I've been closely following Florian's wines the Unterstenberg (sourced from the lower part of the Kupp mountain, "unter" the "berg") has shed sugar, from a bit under 20, to then 15 and now in 2019 and 2020, even lower. The wine is completely dry for 2020 at under 9 grams residual sugar. I love it in this dry / drier form, with the schmaltzy, glycerin depth of the mid-palate emphasized and defined by the acidity's cut and lift.