Per Importer Vom Boden: "The 2022er Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Kabinett Feinherb Gackes Unten was made from fruit harvested at 81° Oechsle on largely un-grafted old vines in the middle front part of the vineyard part of the vineyard and was fermented down to off-dry levels of residual sugar (22 g/l). The nose is initially very closed, with only residues from its spontaneous fermentation, giving a very smoky and herbaceous aspect. It takes a few minutes in the glass for it to show its complexity, with notes of cassis, wild strawberry, candied grapefruit, fine spices, aniseed herbs, and fresh herbs. The wine has superb balance on the palate, with finesse but also intensity and grip. The finish is very long, chiseled, and refreshing. What a gloriously light yet deep expression of dry-tasting Kabinett!."
Vom Boden is the new wave cool kid in German wine imports. While importer Michael Skurnik may be to Germany what Kermit Lynch was to France, Vom Boden has been a lightning rod for the smallest of the small German wine estates who break their backs on the steepest slopes in the world to produce one of the world's greatest white wine styles. Vom Boden highlights artisanality in German wine as it is taken to its most meticulous heights. They bring in many of Germany's new wave of elite Riesling producers, including Hermann Ludes (and Keller!).
Hermann Ludes is a relatively unknown producer in the US, but they hold one very important claim to fame:they are the largest single owners of the Thornicher Ritsch vineyard and have both the steepest and the oldest vines in the vineyard. Ritsch used to be one of the most celebrated sites in the Mosel Valley, but it was left in neglect for many years due to how extremely steep it is and therefore difficult to farm. Hermann Ludes has revived winemaking in Ritsch, and the wines are incredible and precise. Drinking a bottle of Hermann Ludes is like taking a time machine to a cooler world; these are wines of hair raising acidity and precision. In fact nothing is more apt to describe these wines than the following (my new favorite description of Riesling), It was like drinking directly from a mountain stream while sticking your finger into an electrical socket.
2022 is an incredibly promising vintage, with the VDP saying that 2022s are wines that show the promise of perfect acidity and striking aromatics. In spite of a difficult vintage that included drought conditions and water stress in the summer, as well as rain around harvest, this is a vintage of incredible promise in terms of quality. While 2021 was absolutely a Kabinett vintage, Mosel Fine Wines claims that the 2022 Ludes wines may top the 2021, even by Ludes incredible standards. If that's not enough here is what Vom Boden says about the 2022s from Ludes:
These wines, at their best, are among the most delicate, angelic wines on earth these are wines that have somehow been able to reduce this most complex world into something so essential and primal, even basic, simple. Like water, made from wine.Here are these miracle-wines, sourced from vineyards equally improbable, with ancient vines scattered in cliff-vineyards that demand profound human labor¦ and yet most of them even the greatest of these wines can be had for very little. Fifty bucks will buy you 750ml of a fucking miracle. Grand Cru in any conceivable articulation of that idea. They are right here, right in front of us, yet most of us walk right on by without noticing.
