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Hello! Welcome to As Drunk by Exotic Wine Travel, a weekly column where we feature interesting wines that we encourage you to seek out. The reviews featured in this series may be written by either one or the both of us. The featured wines can be from obscure or well-known wine regions. We hope that these wine recommendations will keep you gastronomically curious and your palate invigorated!

Carl Loewen, ‘Maximin Herrenberg’ Riesling 2018

The first time we tasted the wines from Carl Loewen was in Serbia. Our friends from Wine Elite were kind enough to let us try several of the wines several years ago. We were instantly impressed back then and even more so after visiting the estate in July 2019.

Carl Loewen is a traditional estate in the Mosel, their popularity has taken dramatic leaps over the last few years. The wines are made with native yeasts and are fermented in a combination of oak and stainless steel. The estate focuses solely on Riesling and even has plots of vines on their original rootstock.

All of the wines at Carl Loewen are superb. They are everything you want in dry Rieslings, crystalline fruit flavors combined with floral notes bound together by tack sharp acidity. We highly recommend everything from the entry-level Carl Loewen Riesling Quant all the way up to the reserve wine, the Carl Loewen 1896 Riesling.

The Carl Loewen ‘Maximin Herrenberg’ Riesling 2018 is a Grosses Gewächs (Grand Cru). It is a wine that will be universally appreciated by many palates. The fruit for this wine comes from the steepest part of the Maxmin Herrenberg vineyard, which is full of iron-rich slate. It is a different parcel than their Maximin Herrenberg 1896 Riesling – which is also excellent. The wine is fermented in 1000 liter oak barrels.

The wine has intense flavors of baked apple, slate, white pepper, and white flower. The aromas jump out of the glass and then burst in the mouth with volume and vibrancy. This wine has subtle power that builds on the palate and leaves a long, satisfying finish. For a young Riesling, it’s very enjoyable to drink now.

Score: 93/100

You can find out more about our scoring system on the WINE RATING page.

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