Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein

Reinhard Löwenstein created his estate in 1980, spending the early years identifying top sites, before settling on 5 hectares of prime, precipitous Winningen (Lower Mosel) slate slopes.

His passion lies in expressing the personality of each of his myriad of slate soils, trusting only in his senses. Hence his Schieferterrassen is a blend of slate soils, declassified Grosses Gewachs in the main and represents 50% of his 90,000 litre production. During the 1990s Reinhard Löwenstein fine tuned his methods for making the best possible dry wines.

His first job is meticulous sorting in the vineyards; then the juice is given 24 to 48 hours skin contact before fermenting to as close to full dryness as possible. Crucially Reinhard aims to incorporate between 10 & 20% botrytis fruit to his dry wines, imparting complexity & richness tot them. The wines usually achieve around 12 degrees alcohol as they aren't bottled until well into the summer, unlike more classical Mosel styles which are bottled in March or April.