Weingut Dr. Loosen

Located in the heart of the Middle Mosel, just a stone’s throw from the wine-growing town of Bernkastel-Kues, is the Dr. Loosen winery. Managed by Ernst “Ernie” Loosen, this estate is one of Germany’s most renowned producers of Riesling, and its name is familiar to virtually every connoisseur of German wines.

History

The Loosen family has owned this estate for over 200 years. A major turning point came in 1988, when Ernie Loosen, who had studied archaeology, took over from his father. He inherited something rare: very old, ungrafted vines on some of the best plots in the Mosel. From the very first harvest, he stopped blending wines from different vineyards and began bottling wines from classified plots as single-vineyard wines, while the rest were released under the simpler label Gutsriesling. Since 1993, the estate has been a member of the VDP, the association of Germany’s leading wine estates.

Vineyards

Dr. Loosen owns approximately 18.5 hectares, entirely planted with Riesling. Most of the vineyards have extremely steep terrain, often with a slope of over 30%, and on the famous Erdener Prälat site, it reaches 80%. The estate works with plots in seven locations that were already classified as Grosse Lagen (essentially Grand Cru) on the 1868 Prussian map of vineyards in the Trier region. Among them are some of the most famous names in German winemaking: Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Erdener Prälat, Erdener Treppchen, Ürziger Würzgarten, Graacher Himmelreich, Graacher Domprobst, and Bernkasteler Lay.

Since the soils here are very stony and skeletal, phylloxera never took hold in the Mosel, so all of the estate’s vines still grow on their own roots. Some of them are around 100–120 years old.

Terroir

Ernie Loosen likes to describe his terroir in a single phrase: blue slate for power, gray slate for finesse, red slate for spice. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard is situated on pure blue Devonian slate with virtually no topsoil, producing elegant, crystal-clear wines with notes of white peach and green apple. Erdener Prälat, nestled between the river and a wall of red slate cliffs, has an unusually warm microclimate and produces richer, tropical wines. Ürziger Würzgarten, situated on red slate mixed with volcanic rock, is the source of more spicy, exotic Rieslings, hence its name “spice garden.”

Grapes

Here, everything revolves around Riesling. As a side project, the winery produces a small amount of Pinot Blanc, but Riesling remains the focus across all lines.

Winemaking

Ernie Loosen has returned to the methods used at the winery around 1900. Yields are kept low, the entire harvest is carried out by hand in several stages, and the grapes ferment spontaneously with wild yeast in old wooden barrels. The wines are aged on the lees for 12 to 24 months, depending on the variety, without stirring or racking. The idea is to work gently and allow the vineyard to express itself.

Wines

The range starts with the entry-level Dr. L Riesling and the Red Slate and Blue Slate cuvées, which give a good sense of the style.

Above these are single-village wines and Grosses Gewächs from a single vineyard (top-tier dry wines), semi-dry and sweet Prädikat wines ranging from Kabinett to Trockenbeerenauslese

At the very top is the GG Réserve, made exclusively from the best plots in Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten, and Erdener Prälat, aged for 24 months on the lees and another 36 months in the bottle before release.