Heymann-Löwenstein tasting

A Heymann-Löwenstein tasting arranged by me.

One ringer from Van Volxem included in the flight.

• 2007 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Röttgen Riesling Großes Gewächs 91 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright yellow colour. Nose of ripe yellow fruit with peach and some tropical fruit, good aroma concentration, some honey and Riesling perfume. Rather dry on the palate, fruity, very concentrated, tropical fruit and yellow fruit, good acidity with a slightly bubbly impression, slightly spicy, a hint of alcoholic bite, and a slight grapefruit bitterness. Approachable now, will stand more cellaring. The alcohol disturbs me slightly. A classical Röttgen in style, very much more exotic in its flavours than the three Uhlens of the same vintage.

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• 2007 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Uhlen Riesling "B" Blaufusser Lay 92 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright yellow colour. In the nose mineral with some stone dust and smoke, good fruitiness with ripe citrus fruits and other ripe yellow fruit, discrete perfume. Dry and very concentrated on the palate, quite minerally, ripe fruit in the background, menthol, good acidity, slight alcoholic feeling and spice, very light alcoholic “fiery” feeling also in the aftertaste. Rather young, could gain from more cellaring. 92+ p.
  
  Very different from the more exotic Röttgen of the same vintage when tasted next to it. Here, the minerality is much more dominant and the fruit is more in the background. This wine also comes across as younger and more closed than Röttgen.

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• 2007 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Uhlen Riesling "L" Laubach 92 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright yellow colour. Minerally nose, slighly smokey notes, wax, ripe citrus fruit and other yellow fruit, some honey, after a while a hint of petrol and some nut. Dry on the palate, very concentrated, mineral, menthol, good acidity, fruit in the background with mostly citrus notes, including zest. Rather young. 92+ p.
  
  In similar to Uhlen B of the same vintage, Uhlen L is clearly mineral. Compared to Uhlen B it is less obviously fruity and more smokey on the nose, more similar on the palate, but spicier and with its fruit notes more citrus-only. The difference between B and L grew with temperature. While much unites the three Uhlen 2007s (B, L, R) in style, in some sense, it is Uhlen L that’s the odd man out in terms of aromas.

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• 2007 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Uhlen Riesling "R" Roth Lay 93 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright yellow colour. In the nose mineral, peach, some honey, some flower and perfume notes, very elegant. Dry on the palate, mineral, good fruit concentration with ripe and tropical fruit, honey – more specifically honey drops (confectionery) – very good acidity with a sparkly background feeling, menthol, spice notes. Rather accessible, but should improve with further cellaring. 93+ p.
  
  In my opinion, this wine was the most elegant in its aromas in a lineup the three Uhlen 2007s, Röttgen 2007 and a few older vintages. It’s interesting that it comes across as more accessible than Uhlen B and L and shows more fruit notes than those two, while still being mineral, since Uhlen R is supposed to require the longest cellaring. Its style came across as something in-between Uhlen B and Röttgen with some extra elegance to its aromas.

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• 2007 Van Volxem Scharzhofberger Riesling Pergentsknopp 92 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright yellow colour. Obvious mineral note in the nose, some honey, ripe yellow fruit, discrete perfume note, elegant. Also a hint of petrol after a while. Dry taste, good concentration, citrus, clearly mineral, high acidity, grapefruit bite, spicy, long and grapefruit-dominated aftertaste. Definitely elegant. Rather young, would gain from further cellaring, but accessible now. 92+ p.

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• 2004 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Röttgen Riesling Großes Gewächs 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Bright- to golden yellow colour. Obvious smoke in the nose, some petrol, yellow fruit, slightly “muted” in the nose. Quite good concentration on the palate, honey, ripe yellow fruit, high acidity, spicy, slight bitterness, long aftertaste. A wine to drink with food, feel rather ready and fully developed. The palate better than the nose. 90 p?
  
  I tasted this wine another time not too long before the tasting, and then it was absolutely amazing – both nose and palate – and should have had potential to come out on top in this tasting. This time, the nose was much less impressive, and indicates that there could be some sneak defect to it, but I do recognise the palate, so I don’t really think it was mildly corked. It got a little cloudy after some pieces of wax from the top of the cork accidentally fell down into the bottle when I opened it, but that shouldn't matter. The wine was the subject of some discussion around the table, with some claiming that it definitely had some cork, while some sharing my opinion, that it didn’t show the dead and metallic taste that typically goes with cork defect, and that it didn’t really get worse. In any case, I can't rule out that something probably wasn’t quite right with it, and a perfect bottle should have the potential for scoring higher.

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• 2001 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Röttgen Riesling Großes Gewächs 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Light golden colour. In the nose clear petrol notes and classical developed notes, yellow apple and other fruit, some spice, heather honey. Quite good concentration on the palate, spicy attack with honey, dried yellow fruit, good acidity, light alcohol feeling, spicy aftertaste with some bitterness. Impressive concentration, foody style, slightly disjointed, the most obvious alcoholic feeling of the flight, and a bitterness that’s high enough for me to mark it down slightly. I don’t expect it to improve with further cellaring.
  
  In a lineup of several H-L wines of the vintages 2001-2007, the alcohol and the bitterness, both detectable in several of the wines, was at their highest in this wine, and made it come across as somewhat disjointed and not too harmonic, although it also showed some wonderful aromas. I therefore scored this wine slightly lower, although at 90 points it was not a bad wine by any standard, and it hadn’t collapsed or anything like that. Probably, in a very strong lineup, its minor beauty defects were more obvious that they had been if it had been served on its own with food.

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• 2001 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Uhlen Riesling "R" Roth Lay 93 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Golden colour. In the nose some dried fruit, perhaps a hint of botrytis?, honey, spicy and slightly smokey, some petrol, heather honey. Complex and obviously mature notes. Quite concentrated on the palate, try, cool and minty in the attack, spicy, with notes of baked apples, high acidity, long aftertaste with mineral, slight bitterness. Mature in a positive sense, could probably take some more years in the cellar.
  
  A good example of a powerful dry Riesling that has mature aromas but also fine acidity and minerality. Compared to Röttgen 2001, I thought that it was more balanced, and should have a longer life ahead of it, since it still shows mineral and cool character, and that the alcohol and bitterness hasn’t come through as they have in the Röttgen 2001.

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