Our Young Mosel Genius Got Gault Millau Feinherb of the Year for His "Gackes Oben" - This Is the Brother Wine "Gackes Unten" - Also Incredible - Stunning Value

2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Kabinett Feinherb "Gackes Unten"
 - I Gave This 9.5 on Delectable
 - The Brother Wine of the Feinherb of the Year
 - Insane Nose
 - Reminds Me of Top Willi Schaefer
 - Apple Pie, Phyllo, Confectionary
 - Stunningly Deep and Intense Aroma
 - So Floral as it Airs
 - Lime Zest, Meyer lemon, Lime and Slate Blast
 - Palate: Nimble, Yet Tense and Taut
 - Rich and Refreshing with Terrific Purity
 - Terrific Minerality and Slatiness
 - Case Pricing
 - 85 Year Old Ungrafted Vines
- Today's Wine is Like Those Mid 90's Legends

"Mosel's Best Kept Secret" - Mosel Fine Wine" 

"Young Julian Ludes makes a huge comeback with a 2019 collection which more than reminds of the great bottles produced by his uncle Hermann in the past. The wines are airy, playful, tempting, and refined. Despite their apparent lightness, there is stunning complexity at play here, from the simple Estate Riesling I right up to the Ritsch Spätlese GK. If Joh. Jos. Prüm and Merkelbach are your thing and if you also enjoy Saar zest, we can only warmly recommend buying as much as you can from this Estate. In this style, the Estate is simply one of the best, despite it still being rather under the radar in many parts of the world! One needs to just keep one thing in mind: These wines require quite some airing to be at their best." - Mosel Fine Wine

Gault Millau is one of the most respected food and wine publications on earth.  So when they talk, I listen.  Julien getting feinherb of the year  for his "Gackes Oben" is a stunning achievement.  German winemakers love feinherb and compete to make the best one.  The fact that young Julien bested them all is a momentous achievement.

I had the "Gackes Oben" side by side with the "Gackes Unten" I am selling today.  I gave the Oben 9.6 and the Unten 9.5.  They are both brilliant but the Oben beat the Unten by a small amount. 

The Oben is sadly sold out.

Still, this is one of the great wines in Germany and the fact that I am selling it for under $23 on case

pricing is ridiculous.  Julien just took over in 2015 and Ludes is a few miles from the more well known part of the Mosel and still not as well known.  So these wines are ridiculous values.

That won't last for long. 

I just got a batch of strategically placed samples sent over so I could offer some great wine. Today is the top value play of the entire batch. But first a little background. 

The Estate

Many of you are familiar with the older wines of Hermann Ludes. The great Spatlesen and Auslesen of the mid 90s that I've offered. Everyone loves them. Easy to love. Insane terroir, insaner prices, insanely delicious. These were a gift from the heavens but one thing not to look over is that those wines were made by Hermann Ludes, who is Julian Ludes' Uncle. Julian only started making wines recently. I think his 2015s that I tasted are magic but understandably so many people save their money for the older wines.  But I'm only going to say this once. 

Julian Ludes who makes the wines now is a force to be reckoned with and in 2019 he made a masterpiece of a wine that is such an incredible value in offering case pricing at prices not seen in years for a wine this low priced and high quality. 

 - This was a 9.5/9.6 on Delectable. 

The Style - Spectacular But Elusive

Feinherb is one of the hardest to pull off pradikat/ripeness category but when properly executed,  it's absolutely stunning. They need to be ethereally light yet also have an intensity to turn as well. There needs to be a balance of the added elements that lift this from Kabinett Trocken to Kabinett Feinherb. Those elements are sugar which adds two things. Texture and sweetness. Kabi Trockens are more skeletal but Kabinett Feinherb have some flesh on them but not too much. There is the every so slightest hint of richness and sweetness that adds so much to the wine that it enters a new category. The sweetness is like great service in a *** Michelin restaurant. I like to call it "there but not there." You get up for 5 seconds to talk to someone at the next table. A handshake and then back. But when you're back your napkin is folded in some unreal shape origami type thing that you cannot believe they have done this in 5 seconds and no one is even close to the table! Did it really happen? That's how the sweetness should be in a Feinherb. It exists in this state that is like peeking out from another reality or dimension. It's present sometimes, but not all the time, and when it is present, it's elegant and "there but not there." 

The Wine

Today's wine is the brilliant 2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Kabinett Feinherb "Gackes Unten" for $24.99 on a 4-pack and $22.99 on a case. The value here is something that you can only get at Fass Selections. Nobody else can offer a wine this good, from a producer this brilliant for such little scratch. It's unheard of. German pricing, for many estates, is still inexpensive and in a narrow window.  Ok, this is so so serious and so so stunning! 

Insane nose that brings to mind top Willi Schaefer. Apple pie and all that entails. A phyllo aspect. Confectionery. Stunningly deep and intense aroma. Haunting, floral, savory, so deep. Penetrating. Lime. Slate. A sense of creaminess as well. So so good. Just a wow nose.  As this airs the nose just gets so incredible. So floral. Lime zest. Lime and slate blast. Some Meyer lemon. Clean and elegant. With great clarity. 

What a palate. This is perfectly executed Feinherb. So nimble, yet tense and taut. Beautiful purity and a delicate elegant structure but impossible to put down now. Wow, the complexity and finesse. Such amazingness. So filigreed. So long. Perfectly dissipating finish. I know this will be that much better in 5 years. This is a genius wine. Palate is rich and refreshing with terrific purity. Really tows that feinherb line between sweet, sour and savory. Great. Just great. Sappy and pure. Just so slatey and mineral. Insane. Best lime ever. The Mosel is so good in 2019. 

Buy cases and cases of this as it has 15-20 years to go. In 5 years this will be a showstopper but keeping your hands off it today is going to be hard. 

2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Kabinett Feinherb "Gackes Unten" - $26.99 ($99.96 4-pack, $275.88 12 bottle case {$22.99!}) (Including Tariff of $2.08)