Riesling Schieferterrassen BA
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2055
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheese, apricot tart, rich duck liver pâté
✨ Technical Specifications
The 'Schieferterrassen' (slate terraces) Beerenauslese from Heymann-Löwenstein is a liquid testament to the extreme viticulture of the Terrassenmosel. Grown on the dizzyingly steep, hand-built stone terraces of Winningen, where roots must drill deep into the ancient Devonian slate to find moisture, this noble sweet elixir is only produced in vintages where nature perfectly aligns. The wine is crafted from individually hand-selected grapes shriveled by botrytis (noble rot). Legend has it that these sheer slate cliffs act as giant heat storage heaters, reflecting warmth back onto the vines during the cool Mosel nights, allowing for the perfect, slow development of botrytis. The resulting wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, capturing a profound tension between luscious, honeyed sweetness and a vibrant, slate-driven mineral acidity.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein was founded in 1980 by Reinhard Löwenstein and Cornelia Heymann-Löwenstein in Winningen, revitalizing centuries of familial viticultural heritage in the Terrassenmosel. Championing the dramatic, steeply terraced slopes along the lower Mosel, the estate tends approximately 14 hectares of dry-stone wall vineyards tilted up to 80 percent gradients. The viticultural terroir centers on heterogeneous Devonian slate formations, distinguished into blue-gray slate, iron-rich red slate, and fossil-infused calcareous slate. Winemaking adheres to an uncompromising, artisanal ethos: hand-harvested grapes undergo native-yeast fermentation in traditional wooden Fuder casks without additions, followed by long contact with fine lees and late bottling up to 24 months post-harvest. Member of the VDP since 1997, the estate excels in dense, bone-dry, age-worthy Grosses Gewächs bottlings from benchmark crus like Winninger Uhlen—divided into Roth Lay, Laubach, and Blaufüsser Lay—as well as Röttgen, Kirchberg, and the harmonious regional cuvée Schieferterrassen.
🍇 Grapes
Riesling