Weingut Dr Hermann is today run by Christian Hermann, who farms around 15 hectares of Riesling vines on the steep rock slopes of the famous vineyards of the ‘Erdener Prälat’, ‘Erdener Treppchen’ and the ‘Ürziger Würzgarten’ from which a range of wines are produced, with the finest being the rare sweet wines.
 
2018 was an exceptional vintage, the first ever in which 6 different TBAs were produced, but the estate’s dedication to quality is so high that only tiny quantities were produced. Just 60 litres were bottled of the Urziger Wurzgarten TBA, whilst there are only 30 litres of the Kinheimer Hubertuslay TBA!
 
The sets of magnums at the end of this offer are two of three three magnums of each cuvee ever filled – my supplier is a close friend of Christian and persuaded him to make some magnums, but due to the tiny quantities, he made 3 sets, keeping one for the family, and the other two are those on offer here!
 
Stephan Reinhardt of the Wine Advocate has scored the wines very positively, suggesting the wines should last in the cellar until 2100! Jean Fisch and David Rayer of Mosel Fine Wines suggest the Erdener Treppchen TBA should still be drinking in 2118! Stephan Reinhardt wrote the following:
 
“In early July, Christian Hermann bottled an impressive series of highly sweet predicate wines from the exciting 2018 vintage. No less than five Trockenbeerenauslesen were carefully selected, and they will surely rank (again) among the Mosel's finest sweet wines of the vintage. Hermann himself ranks them among the finest of the past 20 years and calls his TBAs "shells." But in fact, they are far too filigreed, vital and elegant to be named like weapons. "The fruit was perfectly ripe, concentrated and healthy, so the acidity was concentrated as well," Hermann explained. "Botrytis came early, but we selected single berries throughout the harvest, which took five weeks in row. We sorted the raisins until three in the morning, and this enormous effort did pay off. The musts were crystal-clear as rarely before and didn't need any fining." Thanks to their precision and sharp acidity, which lifts the immense sweetness and concentration to sensational heights, these are highly stimulating sweet wines, and I don't know if I've ever had such digestible noble sweet wines, even compared to similar refreshing vintages such as 2017, 2015 or 2010.
 
After a total of about 40 TBAs, Hermann has become an excellent sweet winemaker as well. One selection of the Prälat TBA was picked at spectacular 321° Oechsle, but in the end, he decided to blend the ten liters with 50 liters of a BA selection that was above 200° Oechsle. "Otherwise, the TBA would have become too rich, and the fermentation had been too long since musts with more than 250° Oechsle tend to ferment only very slowly, if at all, to 6% alcohol." The final blend comes in with 6% alcohol (like all the other TBAs), and the heavy sweetness of 478 grams of residual sugar is balanced by almost ten grams of total acidity. In general, the freshness of the 2018s is amazing, as is their ageability. "The added sulfur is very well bound so that the free SO2 ranks between 60 to 70 milligrams. That's enough for decades of aging, especially in combination with record dry extract levels like 65 grams per liter in the Prälat TBA. The 2018s will still shine in 60 and even in 80 years, and there won't be any mocha or oxidative notes then." Hermann quotes the still fabulous and vivacious 1959s to compare to 2018, although the two exceptional warm and early vintages gave very different wines. He ranks the 2018s in line with 2017, 2015 and 2010 —his finest sweet wine years thus far.”

N.B This wine is due to arrive soon - until it arrives and ABV can be confirmed, it is only available for purchase in bond.