Winemaker Notes
Bernkasteler Lay (pronounced LIE — an old dialect word for "slate") lies to the north of the village of Bernkastel. This west by southwest facing vineyard is on a 50% grade and consists, as the name suggests, of medium-deep, stony, blue-weathered slate which is heavier and deeper than in the neighboring villages of Wehlen and Graach. This extraordinary vineyard produces richly textured, assertive wines.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Served from the 375-milliliter bottle, the 2016 Bernkasteler Lay Auslese (Gold Capsule) displays a discreet bouquet that needs its time to open up. It's pretty reductive at this early stage (March 2018). The attack on the palate is racy and fresh, and the wine is filigreed and precise, very clear and fresh in the well-structured finish. This (AP 05 17) is a lovely Auslese version that is on par with the bright, light and filigreed Badstube Kabinett. It's a delicious Riesling bottled at 7.5% alcohol.
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Wine Spectator
Dessert in liquid form, with a lovely silky texture and charming aromas and flavors of jasmine honey, cream, apricot tart and bergamot, combined with mineral elements that impart freshness. Features intense acidity that keeps the sweetness in harmony from start to marathon finish. Drink now through 2040.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.