2017 1896 Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg Alte Reben White Label
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Tasting notes
Lingonberry, white peach and lime are accented with sage and accompanied by high-toned, penetrating piquancy of holly berry in a forceful aromatic display. The palpably dense, firm but satiny palate offers ample juiciness of peach and lime to balance the austere tendencies of pit and seed piquancy as well as crushed stone suffusion, and the herbal pungency detected on the nose morphs into a surprisingly cooling, soothing aura more suggestive of mint and basil. The finish is almost vibratory in its conveyance of energetic interaction between fruity, herbal and stony elements. “This was one 2017 that just filled the cellar with lovely aromas early on,” related Christopher Loewen, “so that we were a bit worried about a wine that was so expressive and approachable so early.” Clearly, he needn’t have been! His approach to the fruit of these ancient vines – which involves, inter alia , picking into antique, conical wooden vessels; foot-treading the grapes in the vineyard; and pressing with an old, restored basket press directly into fuder – has once again resulted in a wine that didn’t quite reach legal dryness, so that this bottling – the contents of a single fuder – can be distinguished from Loewen Senior’s “1896” by an absence on this wine’s label of the word “trocken.” (The label design for Christopher’s rendition is also distinctive. For much more about this site and these ancient vines, consult my reviews of the corresponding 2015 and 2016.)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Longuich Maximin Herrenberg Riesling 1896 (Black Label) is very clear and concentrated yet fine on the spicy, grapefruit-scented nose. Full-bodied, concentrated and highly aromatic on the palate, this is a rich and very intense Riesling with elegant power and a long, aromatic finish. This is a tightly structured and persistent Riesling whose grapes were macerated and basket-pressed, and the juice ran without sedimentation into the oldest fuder, where the must was fermented with indigenous yeasts. A strong and promising Riesling from ungrafted vines, this has analytically more alcohol than the 1896 (White Label), but it's much more balanced due to its concentration and fleshy fruit. This 1896 should be kept for about 5 to 10 years, at least. Tasted in April 2019.
One can easily get confused with three separate old-vine cuvées from Maximin Herrenberg. Suffice to say that this one is the drier variation on the 1896 theme, made by more conventional vinification methods, but with the same concentration of aromatic stone fruit and ripe pears. Maybe its gritty minerality is a bit more marked because of its drier execution. (MS)