2023 Emrich Schonleber "Halenberg" Nahe Riesling Grosses Gewachs MAGNUM

The VDP, the association of Germany's classified wine estates, introduces Emrich Schonleber with a single line: whoever hears the name thinks first of the Halenberg. Until the 1960s the family ran a mixed farm in Monzingen. Wilhelm Schonleber and then his son Werner turned it into a dedicated wine estate between 1965 and 1985 and joined the VDP in 1994, and Frank Schonleber has run it alone since 2018. The Halenberg is Monzingen's smallest vineyard and is planted only to Riesling: a south facing wall of blue slate and quartzite pitched at up to 70 percent, most of it owned by the estate. Its wines are dense and saline, closed for their first years and slow to unfold. Anne Krebiehl, who reviews German wine for Vinous, scored the 2023 at 96 with a drinking window reaching 2060, and in magnum the wine ages more slowly still.