Winemaker Notes
Superior is a special designation at Grunhaus. It is a reference to “Father Superior” and its Benedictine monastery roots. It is made in the “semi-sweet” Feinherb style with about 1.5% residual sugar. It’s not dry, it’s not sweet, it’s just perfect. Produced exclusively from the oldest vines on the Herrenberg, this has the concentration of a GG riesling with the elegance of lighter alcohol - 11.5%. The wine itself is textbook Grunhaus, all about the “green house”: Granny smith apple, kiwi fruit, Anjou pear, key lime and sweet green herbs.
Extra density and concentration from the older vines. Think of a well seasoned veal chop, a mushroom risotto or clams in a garlic sauce.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried-lemon tart, grapefruit, pink guava and dried orange blossom are in no short supply on the nose. Lightly off-dry and rather steely on the medium-bodied palate with some serious drive and density. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Maximin Grünhaus Herrenberg Riesling Superior is complex and ripe on the flinty and herbal nose but also fine and multi-layered. The palate is crystalline and powerful but firmly structured and highly tensioned. The wine tastes pretty dry and very straight. A remarkably good wine with perhaps more terroir expression and finesse than the corresponding GG?
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Wine Spectator
This features aromas and flavors of hops and cream, while the palate shows notes of peach and apricot, followed by sea salt accents that persist through the lingering aftertaste. Elegant, bright and firmly structured, exhibiting good balance throughout. Could use a bit more aging. Best from 2023 through 2033.
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.