Weingut Emrich-Schönleber - Riesling Trocken 2023

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 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, stylistically, you would have to leave the Nahe altogether to find the wines that remind one the most of Emrich-Schönleber: and that would be Keller in the Rheinhessen.

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.

Producer: Emrich-Schönleber 

Country: Germany

Region: Nahe

Varietal:  Riesling

Appellation: Nahe

Vintage: 2023

Size: 750ml