2016 Alte Reben Riesling Q.b.A.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2016 Riesling Alte Reben offers a clear, intense and flinty bouquet of perfectly ripe and fleshy Riesling intertwined with very fine slate aromas. Highly elegant and very mineral on the palate, this is a complex, firm, still a bit austere but promising Riesling with a pure, crunchy and very persistent finish with minty flavors. This is surely a long-distance runner and should be kept under cork for at least another 5 to 7 years. Great finesse and elegance here. The finish is extraordinarily long and fresh. A great wine from old vines cultivated in several "premier crus" along the Saar. Tasted in March 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt, April 2018

Mosel Fine Wines: The 2016er Riesling Alte Reben is made from very old often un-grafted vines in lesser-known vineyards owned by the Estate, including in the Wiltinger Klosterberg (where it owns a parcel planted with 120 year-old vines), the Wawerner Ritterpfad and the Kanzemer Sonnenberg. This offers a beautifully smooth and lively nose of grapefruit zest, pear, star fruit and fine herbs. The wine is nicely elegant on the hugely elegant palate packed with flavors of passion fruit, pear and herbs. The finish is pure silk and leads to a deep, complex and playful feel in the finish. The after-taste proves delicately tart and driven by a refreshing touch of grapefruit. This is the finest rendition of Riesling Alte Reben we have ever tasted. 2022-2031 - Okt. 2017

Vinous: This originates with some ancient and theoretically superbly-situated vineyards, inter alia within the Wiltinger Klosterberg, Wawerner Ritterpfad and Kanzemer Sonnenberg. But once again this year, I find the results decidedly more formidable than they are charming, and the wine almost too dense and muscle-bound for its own (let alone the typical Riesling lover’s) good. But it’s certainly impressive in its way, and perhaps I need to taste some examples that have had a few years in bottle. Juicy white peach is laced with piquant pit and grapefruit rind and suffused with dusty crushed stone in a strikingly forceful aromatic and inner-mouth assault. Although this boast the same under-12% alcohol as other van Volxem bottlings, there is less sense of buoyancy, an impression directly connected with palpable density. The forceful, gripping finish delivers an impressive load of stone as well as pit-inflected peach and cherry, but lacks the transparency to nuance found in this estate’s more successful offerings. - David Schildknecht, März 2018