- Our First GK!!!
- Gorgeous Nose
- Mineral and Spacious
- Green Apples. Epic Spice. Slate.
- Palate Blew Me Away Instantly
- Apple Crisp, Apple Pie and Apricot
- Elite Slate Minerality
- Hedonistic
- That Extra GK Ommph
- Concentrated and So Dense
- 93+, Mosel Fine Wine ("Could Easily Exceed" with Age)
- A Generational Wine for Only $29.99
- 9.6 Delectable
Julien Ludes 2019 Thornicher Ritsch Spatlese Feinherb
- Ludes Is a Feinherb Master
- Gault Millau Feinherb of the Year for His "Gackes Oben"
- This Is a Spatlese with a Skoche More Density
- Killer Nose
- Lime. Big Slate
- So Clear.
- Fresh Rain on A Slate Path in a Summer Storm
- Expansive and Delicate
- Smells Like a Place
- Palate:
- Huge Blast of Lime Sweetness
- Intense Mineral Lime Zestiness
- Terrific Complexity in the Mid Palate
- Massive Structure and Grip
- 92 Points, Mosel Fine Wine
- 9.5 Delectable
"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
I think I get photo tagged and story tagged on the Fass Selections IG for the brilliant wines of Hermann and Julian Ludes more than any other estate. I don't think it's close. Under $40 perfectly aged Spatlese and Auslese that actually can last a few more decades, is as old school and classic as it gets and is really not that far behind JJ Prum or Willi Schaefer which are the benchmark for classic Model pradikat wines. But man does young Julian Ludes' wines remind me of those two legends but with his own inimitable style. These are the wines I go crazy over in my own personal wine life. If I had no company and was working at some other job I'd be buying the Ludes offers more than any other offer as this is a discovery on par with Pierre Brisset and Sara Vezza/Josetta Saffirio. It's the Mosel of course and the wined are so cheap that the last thing I do when I am evaluating a Ludes wine is look or worry about the price.
They are still a secret, but not to Fass Selections' clients. This is buying GameStop at .20 and sitting and
waiting. I believe in Ludes like the Wall Street Bets guys on Reddit believe in GameStop. They will surely go up in price because the hype is happening now and they are preposterously inexpensive even with the tariffs. I think like we have seen in Burgundy and the Langhe a big wave will come and swoop down and raise the prices on the top estates by 30% or more and the smaller estates will not be far behind at 10% and 20%. It hasn't happened yet for reasons I cannot quite understand. But the brilliant wines of Julian Ludes are the best Mosel values I've come across. Hermann, Julian's Uncle, who made the old wines was a brilliant winemaker and he has taught his nephew, Julian well but also Julian has brought this estate to even higher highs, with 2019 behind the best vintage at this lauded estate.
waiting. I believe in Ludes like the Wall Street Bets guys on Reddit believe in GameStop. They will surely go up in price because the hype is happening now and they are preposterously inexpensive even with the tariffs. I think like we have seen in Burgundy and the Langhe a big wave will come and swoop down and raise the prices on the top estates by 30% or more and the smaller estates will not be far behind at 10% and 20%. It hasn't happened yet for reasons I cannot quite understand. But the brilliant wines of Julian Ludes are the best Mosel values I've come across. Hermann, Julian's Uncle, who made the old wines was a brilliant winemaker and he has taught his nephew, Julian well but also Julian has brought this estate to even higher highs, with 2019 behind the best vintage at this lauded estate.
Today I've got two brilliant Spatlesen from the now classic and very real once in a century Mosel vintage, 2019, that firmly entrenched Julian as a top winemaker in the Model. I implore you to buy both of them. These are utterly scintillating, electric examples of classic Mosel Riesling but what is even more interesting is that one is a Feinherb and one is a GK spatlese. Comparing them was a fascinating exercise. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a value these wines are. Wines like this only exist at Fass Selections. But you all know that.
The Wines
Spatlese. The shortstop of the German Pradikats. It holds the whole system together. It links Kabinett and Auslese and is the perfect bridge. There is nothing in the world like an elite Mosel Spatlese from a once in a century vintage. The one I have today is one of the best young Spatlesen I've ever had and I've had a lot. The 2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Spatlese GK (GoldKapsule) can be had for the absurd price of $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack.
A GK is a designation that usually means there is a small amount of botrytis in the wine.
Beautiful nose of green apples. Epic Spice. Slate. Closed initially aromatically but promising. So I went straight for a sip. Wow. On Day 2 it was better. Always with sweet Riesling. Mineral and spacious nose that is airy and salty, slatey and mineral. Seems a bit closed still on day 2!
What a palate. Blew me away instantly. OMG. Sweet, decadent, energetic and filigreed to the max. Stunning. Dense and so so pure. Amazing clarity. This is like an OLED wine it is that clear. Complex and so elegant. Flavors of apple crisp, apple pie, slate and apricot. This is so good. Dangerously good. Nose as it airs gets more pointed and mineral. So good. Apple oil comes through. Elite slate minerality. Elegant. As this started the palate is getting richer, more textured and honeyed. Icing on cake texture which is my favorite thing in the world in sweet Riesling. That little hint of solidity adds so much. So hedonistic. Just so good. ON day 2, that palate is still a wow! Concentrated and so dense with an amazing core of minerals, fruit and richness yet super focused and precise. Amazing length. This is genius. So long and luscious. Masterful. Will age 30+ years. Incredible. Below is the 93+ point score from Mosel Fine Wines.
"The 2019er Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Spätlese GK was made from slightly botrytized fruit picked at 95° Oechsle on 75-year-old and still partially un-grafted vines and was fermented down to fully sweet levels of residual sugar (96 g/l). It offers a rather reduced nose made of pear and creamy elements enhanced by a whiff of exotic pineapple, coconut, and rose water. The wine proves beautifully balanced on the intense but airy and playful palate and leaves a currently slightly sweet and subtly honeyed feel of creamy exotic fruits in the finish. Far from being overpowering, this old-style Auslese GK remains a model of precision, lightness, and finesse right into the after-taste. One simply needs to wait a decade or so for the sweetness to recede into the background and the aromatic complexity to explode. It could then easily exceed our high rating! 2029-2054" 93+, Mosel Fine Wine
Next up is the spectacular Julien Ludes 2019 Thornicher Ritsch Spatlese Feinherb for $25.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. Just another preposterous value. Just insane. This is the best value Spatlese Feinherb of all time.
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 Spatlese Trocken to Spatlese Feinherb. Those elements are sugar which adds two things. Texture and sweetness. Spatles Trockens are more skeletal but Spatlese Feinherb have some flesh on them but not too much. There is the ever 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."
Killer nose. Blast of lime. Big slate. So clean and just masterful clarity. Herbs, peppermint. So clear. Fresh rain. Layered. Multidimensional. Superb. On day 2 it became an even realer deal. Big, expansive nose, gorgeous lime and slate. Expansive and delicate. Really smells like a place.
Palate has a huge blast of lime sweetness on a hyper elegant frame and then pumps out intense mineral lime zestiness that builds on the finish and just lingers. Terrific complexity in the mid palate and what a finish. Massive structure and grip here. So serious. Long, palate staining finish. Great now. Greater down the road.
This wine is epic as it gets for Feinherb. Such intensity. Grip. Such structure. Brilliant. 19 is the truth. After air this gets so filigreed and elegant. The real deal. ON day 2, palate is just perfect. Delicate and elegant. Juicy and so nimble. So pure. Gorgeous acid structure and incredible length on the finish. Elegant, mid weight and complex. An opacity to the taste. This wine tastes transparent. Wow. Brilliant stuff. Lovely rock candied confectionary finish. Awesome. Lime acid craziness. Below is the 92 point score from Mosel Fine Wines.
"The 2019er Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Spätlese Feinherb is a fully off-dry wine (with 33 g/l of residual sugar) made from fruit picked at 88° Oechsle on 75-year-old and still partially un-grafted vines. It offers a superbly subtle and finely sizzled nose made of residual scents from its spontaneous fermentation, citrusy elements, cassis, elderflower, smoke, whipped cream, and herbs. The wine is packed with airy flavors of fruits driven by pear and Limoncello as well as herbs on the racy and hugely playful palate and leaves a nicely focused feel in the long and persistent finish. The after- taste is all about precision, airiness, and juicy sweet-acid tension as one would rather expect it from a Saar wine. This beauty will need a few years to shed its wall of reduction and reveal its underlying finesse. It will prove a remarkable effort afterwards! 2026-2039." 92 Points, Mosel Fine Wine
2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Spatlese GK - $31.99
($119.96 4-pack) (*Including Tariff of $2.78)
2019 Hermann Ludes Thornicher Ritsch Spatlese Feinherb - $27.99
($103.96 4-pack) (*Including Tariff of $2.78)
No comments:
Post a Comment