LauerRiesling Fass 11 Schonfels GG 2022 (750ml)

Schonfels is the name of one of the three Grand Cru dry wines that Florian Lauer produces – the other two are Feils and Kupp. Note in German these are called “Grosses Gewächs,” translating to “great growth.” You should be able to find on the labels the letters “GG,” denoting the fact they are “Grand Cru” and dry.

The Schonfels is one of the most daunting sites of the Saar; under Florian Lauer’s care, it is also becoming one of the most famous sites. While the vineyard has always had a huge reputation, Florian’s father let the site go fallow in the 1980s. The reason? It’s too damn expensive and too difficult and dangerous to farm. The vines here are over 100 years old and ungrafted. Thus, even in good years, the yield is paltry. In addition, because the site is so steep, it is very difficult and very dangerous to farm. In fact, as the site “ends” in a rock face that drops a few hundred feet to a street below, harvesters must be harnessed in, via a carabiner, to a tractor parked at the top of the vineyard. There can be no slipping here; it is truly a matter of life and death.

And while it’s all very easy and dramatic for me to write about this, and while the wine has gone on to become one of the legendary dry wines of the Saar and of Germany, Florian’s decision, in the late 2000s, to rehabilitate this site was equal parts daring, brilliant, insane, and potentially financially crippling to the estate. The site had been fallow for well over a decade, so it essentially looked like a young forest. Months of (dangerous) work were required to rip out, by hand, most of the wild vegetation, in the hopes that the vines would still be alive. Luckily, they were. And luckily, the reputation of the site has proven itself. But this was a serious, serious gamble. Florian is a boss.

The Schonfels GG, as a wine, is without a doubt the most structured, brutal and mineral of Lauer’s dry wines. It smacks one upside the head like a fortress built out of slate. It is unforgiving and requires many years in bottle to integrate and become expressive. A 24- to 48-hour decant is not a bad idea. It is a monumental wine and perhaps the greatest dry wine of the Saar.