2014 Erden PRÄLAT Riesling Alte Reben Grosses Gewächs RESERVE Q.b.A. trocken

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2014 Erdener Prälat Riesling GG Alte Reben "Réserve" is very pure, precise and fine on the flinty nose where bright fruit and slatey notes are displayed. Round, lush and highly elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich and structured Riesling with fine but firm tannins. This Prälat has great expression and persistent salinity. It's stimulatingly salty and fine, in short: a great Riesling from a great terroir. - Stephan Reinhardt, Apr. 2018

Mosel Fine Wines: The 2014er Erdener Prälat Reserve GG is made from very old un-grafted vines. It was fermented in oak with ambient yeasts and aged on its gross lees for 24 months before being bottled. The wine develops a stunning nose of grapefruit zest, passion fruit, star fruit, pear, tangerine and fine spices. The complexity of this wine is quite breathtaking. Layers upon layers of fine fruits and minerals hit one on the still rather suave palate. The finish is airy, long and stunningly multi-layered. What a great wine in the making! 2019-2034. - Okt. 2017

Vinous: The nose here is strongly marked by citrus seeds, orange zest and peach kernel. The palate is waxy and full, incorporating a welcome sense of primary juiciness – factors that help integrate the aforementioned bitter elements. The finish lingers with decadent inner-mouth floral perfume, wet stone, smoky nut oils and a mealy wort-like graininess adding to the wine’s piquant and zesty elements. I have a sense that this wine still needs time to lay out its most convincing case. I can sympathize with Loosen’s thought that perhaps in the future all of his dry Prälat should be released as “Reserve,” because the batch of 2014 bottled in September 2015 as “regular” Grosses Gewächs (and reviewed as part of my report focused on that vintage) – wine that allegedly differed little as must from this “Reserve” – did not much impress me. Specifically, it lacked the enhanced animation, refinement, clarity and primary juiciness that Loosen and Schug have generally been achieving from Prälat over the past decade. In short, the extra year in cask has really done Loosen 2014 Prälat a world of good, and I have little doubt that it will merit following from bottle for far longer than the corresponding “regular” Grosses Gewächs. - David Schildknecht, Jan. 2018