Erdener Treppchen Riesling Eiswein
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2050
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Fruit-based tarts and crumbles, pungent blue cheeses such as Roquefort, and rich savory terrines or pâtés.
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the legendary, vertigo-inducing slopes of the Erdener Treppchen vineyard in Germany's Mosel region, this rare Eiswein is a testament to extreme viticulture. Named 'the little staircase of Erden' after the stone steps carved into the hillside to help workers navigate the precipitous red slate cliffs, this vineyard yields Riesling of remarkable mineral intensity. To produce this liquid gold, winemaker Ernst Loosen takes a monumental gamble each year, leaving pristine grapes on the vine into the freezing depths of winter. Harvested by hand in the dark, freezing hours of early morning at temperatures of -7 degrees Celsius or lower, the grapes are pressed while still frozen. This coaxes out a tiny amount of highly concentrated, nectar-like juice while leaving the ice behind, resulting in a luscious dessert wine balanced by the Mosel's trademark electric acidity.
🍾 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