Winemaker Notes
Alte Reben means “Old Vines” in German and Grunhaus employs vines between the ages of 30 and 80 to craft this cuvee. A blend of Abstberg and Herrenberg vineyards, the goal here is to achieve GG quality without paying a GG price. Textbook aromas and flavors of white peach, green apple, citrus and slate. Sneaky intensity and a long finish.
Drink this over-achiever with smoked salmon, fresh trout, green salads and mild cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a very floral and intense riesling with fresh buttercups and lemon curd. Medium-bodied and ostensibly dry with super density and finesse. The finish is precise and graceful.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Maximin Grünhaus Riesling Trocken Alte Reben is very delicate and complex on the flinty, remarkably pure and refined yet intensely fruity nose. On the palate, this is a quite powerful yet elegant, complex, long and expressive Riesling that is clearly on GG level. The finish is persistently salty and full of inner tension and grip but also richness, extract and power.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine Spectator
Giving and elegant, featuring lavender, mineral and spice notes around the pear and apricot flavors. Shows a mouthcoating texture and good depth, lingering on the broad, spicy finish. Mouthwatering and very fresh. Drink now through 2027.
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.