Erdener Treppchen Riesling Beerenauslese
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2055
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Rich blue cheeses like Roquefort, fruit-based tarts and galettes, and savory delicacies like foie gras or artisanal pâté.
✨ Technical Specifications
The Erdener Treppchen ("little staircase of Erden") vineyard is legendary for its dizzyingly steep, red slate slopes rising directly from the Mosel River. Historically, workers carved stone steps into the hillside to access the vines, giving the vineyard its name. Under the stewardship of Ernst Loosen, this Beerenauslese is crafted from 100% Riesling grapes that have been shriveled by Botrytis cinerea (noble rot) and meticulously hand-harvested berry by berry. The iron-rich red slate soil imparts a distinct mineral tension, which beautifully balances the wine's luscious, honeyed sweetness and vibrant, electric acidity, creating a masterclass in tension and longevity.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Dr. Loosen stands as one of the preeminent global ambassadors of Germany's Mittelmosel. Under family ownership for more than two centuries, the estate experienced an epochal renaissance after Ernst 'Erni' Loosen assumed leadership in 1988. Loosen immediately implemented draconian yield restrictions, prohibited chemical fertilizers, and embraced spontaneous fermentations in neutral oak Fuder casks, frequently practicing extended lees contact. The domaine's strength rests in its holdings of ancient, ungrafted vines—many over a century old—clinging to perilous, south-facing slate amphitheaters. These steep slopes span blue Devonian slate in the Wehlener Sonnenuhr, red volcanic-slate colluvium in the Ürziger Würzgarten, and heat-retaining cliffs in the Erdener Prälat. Dr. Loosen is renowned both for crystalline, classically delicate Prädikat expressions defined by buoyant acidity and low alcohol, and for benchmark dry Grosses Gewächs bottlings that celebrate age-worthy, mineral-driven tension.
🍇 Grapes
100% Riesling