If you open it young you’ll be greeted by a bit of free sulphur (nothing too daunting mind you) but then comes the reward - an explosion of citrus, white peach, mineral and spice. It’s racy and spritzy on the palate with tingling sherbetty flavours of tangerine, lime, lemon and passionfruit sorbet and fairly bursts through the mouth. It has strong acidity to balance the juicy fruit and finishes very long with a tangy acid bite on exit. It’s a powerhouse of Riesling purity - a brilliant Kabinett. Drink : 2008 - 2020+ 95 points Gary Walsh, Winorama
Richly limey and aromatic with a little So. Has plenty of flavour and good acid balance. Highly Recommended. WineWise Volume 25, Number 1 April 2009
From the Rheingau, this is a delicious, delicate, fairly dry-styles wine in the context of German Riesling and shows lemon-lime and honeysuckle aromas. The acidity lengethens the finish and dries off any sweetness. 90 points. Best Import Huon Hooke, Sydney Morning Herald
The 2007 vintage was close to perfect for the Rheingau and it shows in this wine. Pale straw in colour; the nose is a powerful mix of tangy lime, mandarin, spice and lemon. The palate is both powerful and intense with initially lovely rich ripe fruits of mandarine, lychee and honey dew which is held together by quite intense acidty. It then finishes quite dry with lemon and lime closes a long and intese palate. Cellar 10-15 years. Anthony D'Anna
For many, many years Langwerth von Simmern was one of the leading estates, and arguably the best of all, in the Rheingau. Beginning with the late 1970s or in the 1980s, the estate (along with most of the Rheingau) lost its edge. Even in the 1990s, when the Rheingau began to recover, the occasional bottles I came across did not thrill me. But slow progress was being achieved: beginning in 1996, the cellar converted to stainless steel, which was then further upgraded in 2000 along with a new press. Then a new technical Director, Dirk Roth, previously the winemaker at Josef Biffar in Deidesheim, was brought in, and changes in the vineyard with respect to matters such as trellising and pruning were instituted. Last year, I was impressed by the Erstes Gewächs wine and made a mental note to visit. I did, and I am glad that I did so -- these wines did justice to the earlier reputation of this estate. The style is relatively modern, but of quality. Harvest in 2007 was fairly early, beginning in mid-October.
The label at this estate has been very distinctive with a vine motif against a red background and the coat of arms in the middle. Now, that label is kept for the wines designated as from the top vineyards; the others have the same design but with a black background. Although traditionally known for its noble late harvest wines, the dry wines here are remarkable and most worthy of your attention. THE FINE WINE REVIEW Claude Kolm’s Issue 122 : 2007 IN GERMANY, PART I: A GREAT VINTAGE The Year of the Long Hang Time
THE DREAM 2007 GERMAN VINTAGE
German Vintage 2007 is "superb" - "We anticipate outstanding wines from vintage 2007 in all quality levels, from uncomplicated, everyday wines to top-quality wines with a fine balance of ripeness and fruity acidity as well as great aging potential. These wines will have a great following at home and abroad." The Wine Industry Report
Many of the producers have claimed the 2007 vintage to be a "Dream Vintage". What are the makings of a Dream Vintage? Exceptional physiological ripeness, hang times of 130 to 150 days (100 days is the norm), and tartaric acidity in the 90% range to name a few. Flowering began mid-May (June is the norm), the sunshine hours were high and where botrytis was present, it came very late and was extremely clean.
The wines of the 2007 vintage have lots of minerality providing an excellent expression of terroir due to their high sugar free extracts. Because of the excellent harvest conditions, the selection process was able to be done with as much time as the harvest team desired, there was no weather to dodge, there was no botrytis to race against, just following the estate’s "ideal" harvest plan. Due to the amount of sunshine hours, some grape clusters in the vineyards of the Southern Pfalz experienced "sunburn", these clusters had to be selected out so they did not affect the good fruit. All this made possible due to the ideal harvest conditions Mother Nature provided.
With excellent quality, the 2007 harvest also brought an increased quantity, something we have not seen in recent vintages. Rudi West
The history of the Freiherrn (Barons) Langwerth von Simmern dates back to the year 1464, when Johann Langwerth von Simmern was given about 13 hectares of "Hattenheimer Mannberg" as a reward for his services as chancellor to Duke Ludwig von Pfalz-Zweibrücken. In 1472, after the acquisiton of Castle Hattenheim, the family finally made the Rheingau their home. After buying Stockheimer Hof in 1711, the family moved to Eltville, the cultural centre of the Rheingau. At Stockheimer Hof, the mother of Baron vom Stein was born in 1721. The acquisiton of Lichtenstern Hof in 1753 laid the foundations for the current estate. The two buildings lend the modern Langwerther Hof its character and enclose the Estate Park inside.
The wine world is agreed that the Rheingau represents Germany's greatest concentration of top quality Riesling. It is difficult to name a single property that has produced an unbroken run of successes with no major change of direction, particularly since the German wine trade has been buffeted in recent years by a series of difficulties including the most demanding variable: consumer taste. A number of properties, for example, have tailored their output to match the German market's current love affair with dry or Trocken wines.
At the Baron Langwerth von Simmern estate, Freiherrlich Langwerth von Simmern'sches Rentamt, there has been reassuring continuity, The cellarmaster Josef Schell, for example, has worked to the same brief since 1958, aiming to produce long-living wines of unimpeachable purity which reliably express the individual nuances of each of von Simmern's top ranking vineyards.
he estate's holdings include some of the finest sites in the important central slice of vineyards just above the banks of the Rhine between hattenheim and eltville. The 125 acres are shared between such famous sites such as Hattemheimer Nussbrunnen, Erbacher Macrobrunn, Rautenthaler Baiken and Eltviller Sonnenberg so that they include a range of the Theingau's diverse soil types.
Erbacher Macrobrunn is perhaps von Simmern's most famous single wine, partly because it impressed America's first serious wine collector, Thomas Jefferson, 200 years ago. The estate's director Helmut Kranisch points out however that his Hattenheimer Mannberg was originally considered part of 'Marcobrunn'. Herr Kranisch controls 4 acres of Erbacher Macrobrunn and 15 acres og Hattenheimer Mannberg, which gives von Simmern almost monopoly on this secon, exceptionally well falvoured site.
All von Simmern's wines are meticulously well made. Even if the Macrpbrunn wines are just a little fuller than the Mannberg examples, both are ideal vehicles for the unique combination of honeyed Riesling frui and mineral-scented earthiness that characterises the Rheingau. Jancis Robinson
Anyone keen to buy into the 2007 vintage but less than enthusiastic about bordeaux should think seriously about Germany’s exceptional 2007 vintage. Europe’s weird weather pattern last summer may have made life difficult for vintners growing red wine grapes on the Atlantic coast but played nicely into the hands of those growing Riesling on the banks of the Mosel and Rhine. The 2007s are – glory be - wines to enjoy drinking rather than wines to notch up ripeness and auction records. Jancis Robinson
Shipped in a temperature controlled container.
