Riesling Blue Slate
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2028
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Thai or Sichuan cuisine, fresh sushi and sashimi, and traditional roasted pork with apple sauce dishes like pork belly with apple sauce.
✨ Technical Specifications
The Dr. Loosen estate has been in the same family for over 200 years, deeply rooted in the dramatic, steep slopes of Germany's Mosel region. This 'Blue Slate' Riesling is a classic representation of the Middle Mosel's unique terroir, sourced from historic grand cru vineyards in Bernkastel, Graach, and Wehlen. The defining feature of these vineyards is the pure Devonian blue slate soil, which acts as a thermal radiator, absorbing heat during the day and warming the vines through the cool nights. This soil composition, combined with the cool climate and the winding Mosel River, coaxes an intense, flinty minerality and vibrant acidity from the 100% Riesling grapes. Ernst Loosen focuses on traditional, low-intervention winemaking, utilizing indigenous yeast fermentations in historic oak Fuder casks alongside stainless steel to preserve the pristine, bright peach and citrus fruit profile that defines this elegant, off-dry style.
🍾 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