From the Importer: " Even though we are blessed with our growers in the Mosel, well, we’ve always wanted more. Why? This is a magical place; its wines are unlike anything else on earth. We wanted more of this place. And this is the first Mosel Estate in 9 years that we've taken, let that tell you something about how important we think it is"

The young grower is Julian Ludes, whose grandfather Hermann Ludes had started the eponymous estate in the 1950s. Ludes has flown under the radar for decades for a number of reasons. First, the village Thörnich is located in an upper section of the Mosel, far away from the famous “Hollywood Mile” of the Mosel. Further, Thörnich is legendary for shaping wines that are raw and tensile; the wines of Hermann Ludes especially can be brutally structured. In other words, these are not easy wines.

This is a powerful, broad, and silly-complex Kabinett sourced from what Julian thinks is the best parcel they own in the Ritsch – it is also the biggest single parcel at 1.1 hectares, thus it is called the “monster” parcel. The wine flashes layers and layers of fruit, a fascinating assortment of ripe apples, pear, and citrus oils, all of them edged or underlined by a sweet, earthy balsamic. It’s so complex as if an opulent, tropical world of guava and mango was flash-frozen, dusted with citrus and salt – I don’t know how else to describe it. The flavors are exotic, yet the freshness is still there. The fruit is so streamlined, the entire wine so seamless and sheened. Just 36g of residual sugar and an outrageous 11.1g of acid.