Lauer LARGE-FORMAT: Rarities for the Cellar

Posted by Joe Salamone

Lauer x2 = AWESOME
2011 Riesling Magnums
Senior | Unterstenbersch | Schonfels | Neuenberg

The two greatest wines out of magnum have to be Champagne and RIESLING

NO OTHER FORMAT seems able to emphasize the freshness, the minerality, the finesse of these great wines in the way that the magnum does. It's incredible really.

And Riesling mags, with their rocket-ship profile, look cooler.

Today, for the fun of it, for the rarity of it, for the collectability and frankly, because every year we have tons of requests for these and every year we never have enough.

So this year, we've upped the ante and are able to present the most comprehensive parcel of Lauer MAGNUMS we've ever had. And still, we're talking just a few mags of each bottling.

Today we'll spare you the flowery descriptions you know we like to indulge in, but the plain fact is that Florian Lauer is crafting some of the most riveting, crystalline, pure and defined dry and dry-tasting Rieslings in Germany.

Lauer has fairly quickly become something of a super-star in the U.S. - as we've heard people say, "Lauer has gone cult." Florian is uncompromising and you can taste it in his wines; they flaunt a certain mineral-inflected sternness, they are chiseled and above all, they display a fine-ness matched to an intensity that is the hallmark of the Saar Valley.

The Senior is one of those crazy deals; an utterly serious, juicy-delicious bottle awash in green apple skins and slate that is actually affordable. Unterstenbersch is a Crush favorite, one of the wines that first shocked us when we tasted Lauer many years ago - in 2011 it shows a flawless balance, a touch more residual sugar (12 grams/liter to be exact) that presents a beautiful push-pull between sweet and dry.

Schonfels and Neuenberg are the two top wines of the Lauer collection, which is to say two of the top wines of Germany.

The picture above shows the Schonfels, a steep vineyard of ungrafted centenarians that drops precipitously into the Saar river. The site is insane; the wine is, unsurprisingly, awesome. This is a monument. Neuenberg is sourced from the historical sweet-spot of the Ayler Kupp - last year was the first vintage of this cuvée and already it has become one of the top bottlings. There is just no denying this parcel.

Quantities are absurdly small - demand is likely to be something serious. Give us your maximum order and we'll do our best. We'll allocate through the weekend but you might not hear from us until Monday.

To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.

Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits