Stirn tends to be one of the most nervous, linear and soaring of all of Lauer’s wines. It rarely ferments much past 30 grams of residual sugar per liter, thus it certainly is an off-dry Riesling. And yet, because of the extraordinarily high acidity (and low pH), the wine never tastes very sweet. In fact, the razor-sharp grip and density of the wine can make it feel almost dry, at least on the rather gripping finish. For what it’s worth, this is one of Florian’s – and one of the Saar’s – most profound expressions of Riesling. In 2020 the wine is fermented down to 9.3% alcohol with 37g/l of RS and a whopping 9.7g/l of acidity to balance.

For purists, there is nothing like the Saar. The magic here is intensity without weight, grandiosity without size: rocks and acidity. Lauer is currently one of greatest estates in this sacred place. The style here is 180 degrees removed from his famous neighbors Egon Müller and Zilliken. The focus here is on dry and dry-tasting Riesling. While the source of most of the bottlings is the famed Ayler Kupp, Florian uses the pre-1971 vineyard names – Neuenberg, Stirn, Unterstenberg. Rigorous vineyard work, indigenous yeasts and spontaneous fermentations mean the wines find their own balance. The results are undeniable: depth, texture, dimension, clarity, CUT. For Lauer, the large site of the Ayler Kupp has many different terroirs rather than a single, defining character. Soil composition, exposition, altitude, and microclimate in combination with vine age all make contributions to the individual character of each wine.