Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vanne, Albert Boxler

The 2023 Riesling Vanne Sommerberg Grand Cru is from very old vines. One parcel is now over 100 years old and the other is exactly 70 years old. Boxler emphasizes that this really is only from the old vines themselves—any re-planted younger vines were put into the Riesling Réserve. Stone dust and green-yellow citrus aromas shimmer with the slightest reduction, combining into a wonderfully appetizing nose. The palate is concentrated, with a slight phenolic frame, mouthwatering brightness, freshness and structure helping each other out. Smooth tangerine appears on the mid-palate with an almost creamy effect, forming an elixir of a wine. A luminous echo of tangerine reverberates on its uncompromising, superbly sleek body. Whoa. (Dry) - Anne Krebiehl MW

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vanne offers a clear, deep and fresh, very delicate but also complex bouquet of cold, wet stones with coolish, herbal, lemon-scented notes. Beautifully defined, precise and elegant. On the palate, this is a tight, pure, crunchy and salty Riesling with great intensity, fine tannins and a dry and serious, almost aristocratic, endlessly salty finish. This is a Riesling from crushed stones. An amazing Sommerberg indeed. - Stephan Reinhardt

The 2021 Riesling Vanne Sommerberg Grand Cru is made from an elevated parcel planted in 1953, facing south-south-east, on pure granite with very fine topsoil. A gorgeous note of green Seville orange peeks shyly but alluringly from the glass. The palate reprises this fine citrus notion, veering from Seville orange to lemon and back to tangerine. The body is fine-boned, crystalline, linear, bright. A picture of Riesling litheness and purity, where everything is about stony depth, utterly sleek and driven. bone-dry and a huge joy with a super-long citrus finish. Lip-smacking and exciting. (Bone-dry) - Anne Krebiehl MW