Peter Lauer Senior Fass 6 Riesling, Mosel, Germany 2024

This for me is one of the GREAT white wine deals in the world – within the German pantheon it is right there with Keller’s “von der Fels” and Emrich-Schönleber’s “Mineral” as truly Grand Cru wines that sell for 50% of what they probably should. The “Senior” is a dry wine (legally Trocken with only ten grams RS), yet the extreme density of the wine and concentration give it a certain polish. Perhaps more than most wines in Lauer’s stable, the “Senior” is a wine that sits perfectly poised between auster and mineral, and generous and heady, perfumes of stone fruit and citrus. Absolutely spectacular.

The wine is called “Senior” as a tribute to Florian’s grandfather who was already in the 1950s famous at least in the Saar Valley for his dry Riesling. So the story goes, he would walk through the cellar and taste all the barrels and then write “Senior” on the cask he wanted for his own drinking. Nine times out of ten, the cask he took was good ole “Fass, or barrel, #6.”

You just have to taste this wine; while it normally ferments to off dry levels, the wine is dry tasting yet textural with amazing depth and clarity. Don’t worry about how dry or not it is – it’s just delicious. Focus on that.