Emrich-Schönleber ‘Mineral’ Riesling Trocken 2022
Location: Germany, Nahe
Winemaker: Werner & Frank Schönleber
Grapes: Riesling
Winemaking: practicing organic, hand harvest, native yeast ferments
From the importer Vom Boden: Here’s one take on an origin story: If it were not for a bottle of 2004 Emrich-Schönleber Frühlingsplätzchen GG, drank at restaurant Montrachet in early 2006, I may never have started vom Boden seven years later.
It’s a stretch, maybe.
But, if there is one bottle that absolutely cemented my belief that dry Riesling could be as deep, as complex, as elegant, as profound as, say a bottle of Montrachet, this was the one.
Here is something that is not in the least a stretch: For any serious German buyer, whether collector or Riesling dork, the wines of Emrich-Schönleber belong in the cellar directly next to Keller or Schäfer-Fröhlich (or whoever it is that you specifically may think makes the absolutely greatest dry Riesling in Germany).
In terms of style they are different perhaps, but in terms of quality they are equal.
If we consider the holy trilogy of the Nahe (Dönnhoff, Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich), Emrich-Schönleber for me rests somewhere in the center. They are neither as baroque and lavish as Dönnhoff, nor as fiercely angular as Schäfer-Fröhlich. There is a balance, a center to the best of their wines that is about as perfect and meditative as Riesling ever gets: texture and glycerin matched to a chiseled, yet glossy and ultra-fine architecture.
In fact, for me, stylistically, you would have to leave the Nahe altogether to find the wines that remind me the most of Emrich-Schönleber: and that would be Keller in the Rheinhessen.
Now, this may seem like a hyperbolic sales pitch but it’s genuinely not meant that way. While I do think that the “other” greatest wines in Germany are going to start trending upward with serious momentum (they’ve already started), the Keller comparison isn’t meant to be a simplistic sales pitch equivalent to “get a $500 bottle for only $100!”
That’s an inane comparison, equally insulting to Keller and Emrich-Schönleber, both of whom are pursuing their own passions, their unique visions. The comparison is more meant to place the two stylistically, in this very rarified center, where both seem to be able to make wines that are saturating and deep, yet that also have lift and a nearly inexplicable energy.
Wines that showcase fruit of clarity and purity, yet balance this with an equally forceful presentation of soil and mineral.
With Emrich-Schönleber however, we are not in the limestone Rheinhessen. The upper part of the Nahe, where the three grand vineyards of Emrich-Schönleber are, is a world of slate, both blue-gray and red. However, in surveying the entire portfolio, the basic estate wines are some of these “calling card” wines of force and impression. Up the ladder, the ‘Mineral’ is an obvious revelation…and further on, the vineyard specific bottlings offer concise articulations of their amazing sites.
And while the dry wines are the benchmarks, the Prädikat wines are rarer but dazzling. They are somehow both exotic and restrained, juicy fruit that makes your mouth water even as the mineral-water tension and cut of the wines keeps the palate, and the slate, very clean.
Location: Germany, Nahe
Winemaker: Werner & Frank Schönleber
Grapes: Riesling
Winemaking: practicing organic, hand harvest, native yeast ferments
From the importer Vom Boden: Here’s one take on an origin story: If it were not for a bottle of 2004 Emrich-Schönleber Frühlingsplätzchen GG, drank at restaurant Montrachet in early 2006, I may never have started vom Boden seven years later.
It’s a stretch, maybe.
But, if there is one bottle that absolutely cemented my belief that dry Riesling could be as deep, as complex, as elegant, as profound as, say a bottle of Montrachet, this was the one.
Here is something that is not in the least a stretch: For any serious German buyer, whether collector or Riesling dork, the wines of Emrich-Schönleber belong in the cellar directly next to Keller or Schäfer-Fröhlich (or whoever it is that you specifically may think makes the absolutely greatest dry Riesling in Germany).
In terms of style they are different perhaps, but in terms of quality they are equal.
If we consider the holy trilogy of the Nahe (Dönnhoff, Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich), Emrich-Schönleber for me rests somewhere in the center. They are neither as baroque and lavish as Dönnhoff, nor as fiercely angular as Schäfer-Fröhlich. There is a balance, a center to the best of their wines that is about as perfect and meditative as Riesling ever gets: texture and glycerin matched to a chiseled, yet glossy and ultra-fine architecture.
In fact, for me, stylistically, you would have to leave the Nahe altogether to find the wines that remind me the most of Emrich-Schönleber: and that would be Keller in the Rheinhessen.
Now, this may seem like a hyperbolic sales pitch but it’s genuinely not meant that way. While I do think that the “other” greatest wines in Germany are going to start trending upward with serious momentum (they’ve already started), the Keller comparison isn’t meant to be a simplistic sales pitch equivalent to “get a $500 bottle for only $100!”
That’s an inane comparison, equally insulting to Keller and Emrich-Schönleber, both of whom are pursuing their own passions, their unique visions. The comparison is more meant to place the two stylistically, in this very rarified center, where both seem to be able to make wines that are saturating and deep, yet that also have lift and a nearly inexplicable energy.
Wines that showcase fruit of clarity and purity, yet balance this with an equally forceful presentation of soil and mineral.
With Emrich-Schönleber however, we are not in the limestone Rheinhessen. The upper part of the Nahe, where the three grand vineyards of Emrich-Schönleber are, is a world of slate, both blue-gray and red. However, in surveying the entire portfolio, the basic estate wines are some of these “calling card” wines of force and impression. Up the ladder, the ‘Mineral’ is an obvious revelation…and further on, the vineyard specific bottlings offer concise articulations of their amazing sites.
And while the dry wines are the benchmarks, the Prädikat wines are rarer but dazzling. They are somehow both exotic and restrained, juicy fruit that makes your mouth water even as the mineral-water tension and cut of the wines keeps the palate, and the slate, very clean.
Location: Germany, Nahe
Winemaker: Werner & Frank Schönleber
Grapes: Riesling
Winemaking: practicing organic, hand harvest, native yeast ferments
From the importer Vom Boden: Here’s one take on an origin story: If it were not for a bottle of 2004 Emrich-Schönleber Frühlingsplätzchen GG, drank at restaurant Montrachet in early 2006, I may never have started vom Boden seven years later.
It’s a stretch, maybe.
But, if there is one bottle that absolutely cemented my belief that dry Riesling could be as deep, as complex, as elegant, as profound as, say a bottle of Montrachet, this was the one.
Here is something that is not in the least a stretch: For any serious German buyer, whether collector or Riesling dork, the wines of Emrich-Schönleber belong in the cellar directly next to Keller or Schäfer-Fröhlich (or whoever it is that you specifically may think makes the absolutely greatest dry Riesling in Germany).
In terms of style they are different perhaps, but in terms of quality they are equal.
If we consider the holy trilogy of the Nahe (Dönnhoff, Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich), Emrich-Schönleber for me rests somewhere in the center. They are neither as baroque and lavish as Dönnhoff, nor as fiercely angular as Schäfer-Fröhlich. There is a balance, a center to the best of their wines that is about as perfect and meditative as Riesling ever gets: texture and glycerin matched to a chiseled, yet glossy and ultra-fine architecture.
In fact, for me, stylistically, you would have to leave the Nahe altogether to find the wines that remind me the most of Emrich-Schönleber: and that would be Keller in the Rheinhessen.
Now, this may seem like a hyperbolic sales pitch but it’s genuinely not meant that way. While I do think that the “other” greatest wines in Germany are going to start trending upward with serious momentum (they’ve already started), the Keller comparison isn’t meant to be a simplistic sales pitch equivalent to “get a $500 bottle for only $100!”
That’s an inane comparison, equally insulting to Keller and Emrich-Schönleber, both of whom are pursuing their own passions, their unique visions. The comparison is more meant to place the two stylistically, in this very rarified center, where both seem to be able to make wines that are saturating and deep, yet that also have lift and a nearly inexplicable energy.
Wines that showcase fruit of clarity and purity, yet balance this with an equally forceful presentation of soil and mineral.
With Emrich-Schönleber however, we are not in the limestone Rheinhessen. The upper part of the Nahe, where the three grand vineyards of Emrich-Schönleber are, is a world of slate, both blue-gray and red. However, in surveying the entire portfolio, the basic estate wines are some of these “calling card” wines of force and impression. Up the ladder, the ‘Mineral’ is an obvious revelation…and further on, the vineyard specific bottlings offer concise articulations of their amazing sites.
And while the dry wines are the benchmarks, the Prädikat wines are rarer but dazzling. They are somehow both exotic and restrained, juicy fruit that makes your mouth water even as the mineral-water tension and cut of the wines keeps the palate, and the slate, very clean.