Well, at this point I've got to sound like a broken record, but I'm not. The 2015 vintage in Germany is a classic like 2001 and 1990. We've just delivered some 15 Laible wines and please wait 3+ weeks to sample them as not only is 15 a great vintage it is also a massively structured vintage. Combine that with Laible wines always needing extra time after they ship, these will greatly benefit from extra rest.
This is Laible's best vintage by far. It reminds me of a much more structured 13 with higher acidity and so much length. The length of the 15 Laible wines is just stunning. When I tasted with Andreas and Petra the usually reserved Andreas said the vintage is his best and almost too good to be true. Also, there is not much. I've reserved as much as I could but it will prove to be not enough. There's never enough but at the end of the day there is always more wine. there is one thing about 2015 certain producers certainly did make once in a generation wines, but the German public knows and have been snapping them up like I've never seen before. And now Rheinhardt has written about Nahe/ Rheinhessen/ Baden/ Pfalz which has only added kindling to the already raging wildfire of excitement surrounding this vintage. Dry wines from top 15 producers are such a hot commodity now and perhaps the last most undervalued great white wine category in the world. Each offer from people such as today's producer, Laible, are getting harder and harder to source as the demand in Germany for Laible is at a fever pitch the likes I have never seen before. I've had to reserve every bottle of Laible months in advance.
As many of you know, we only get this allocation (which is sold to their best customers) because Andreas and Petra loved our first writeup.
The first wine is an all time classic wine at Fass Selections and it is the 2015 Laible Klingelberger for $32.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. A top 3-4 Riesling at Fass Selections. This is always one of my favorite German wines. I can sit for hours just swirling and smelling this, with an occasional sip here and there. Klingelberger is at a new level this year. It is very, very mineral and so mineral it's almost savory if that makes any sense. 2015 fruit means that it is incredibly juicy and very complex with superb density and a lovely sponti note on the nose. So full of fruit and minerals. So complex, so deep, so elegant. So powerful and so dense. Just Wow. Amazing purity. Genius wine. Like the white Enderle & Molls that I sold out twice over, this is likely underpriced and should cost $60+ but I don't want to be a pig so I'm charging my normal markup. It is going to go down as one of those super special wines that is a reference point for a style. The wine is that good. This is the best version I've ever had.
Up next is the 2015 Laible Durbacher Plauerlian Weissburgunder Kabinett Trocken for as little as $22.99 on a 4-pack. This is one of those wines that one grabs when trying to prove how great the vintage is. It's a less expensive wine, but in 2015, this hits .345 when it usually its career average is a solid .300. That is the beauty of 2015. It carries everyone in its path. A tsunami of greatness. Lovely nose of sugar snap peas, clean minerals, pine resin, salty extract and some bitter citrus. Terrific purity and concentration with a very delicate structure. Awesome texture. So sappy, pretty and delicate. Wonderful wine with outsanding acid and terrific length. Very pure and clean even later that night as I took the bottle in the car. Awesome pillowy texture, exceptional balance, nice opulence, concentration and sap. And by far the most mineral version ever.
I get maybe more emails about Laible than anyone else because his wines are so superbly crafted, terroir-driven and perfectly balanced. Think of them more along the lines of classic, really well made Chablis. Yes, there is fruit, but the wines are more about minerality and balance. They are wines that you can sit and study and the balance and aromatic expressions will evolve over the course of an evening. They are wines of quiet contemplation. I use the word cult for a reason. Laible lovers absolutely love these wines as they are so distinctive and gobble them up.
2015 Andreas Laible Klingelberger - $34.99 ($131.96 4-pack)
2015 Andreas Laible Durbacher Plauerlain Weisserburgunder Kabinett Trocken - $24.99 ($91.96 4-pack)
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