Lukas HammelmannRiesling Schlossberg “von den Terrassen” Trocken 2023 (750ml)

The Grand Cu dry Rieslings always see an extra year in barrel; thus they are normally released two years after the harvest. The wines nearly always go through complete malolactic transformation and are bottled unfiltered.

Yet still, they are wines of superb delineation, focus and power. The Schlossberg, Von den Terrassen and “Wilhelm Friedrich” all come from sites west of Zeiskam, in and around the famous Haart mountains, in the general region where most of the Pfalz’s more famous wines come from. Thus there is an amplitude, an exuberance that reads to me as more Pfalz than the other two wines (the Klosergarten and Roter Berg) which somehow read to me as cooler and leaner).

The “Von dern Terrassen” comes from a one-hectare parcel of ungrafted vines, high in a terraced vineyard in the Schlossberg. At one time, there were 100 hectares of terraced vineyards here; now there are only two hectares left. Lukas farms one. He says to me, matter of factly, “It is an awesome amount of work; I love it.”