2018 Weingut Dr. Hermann Riesling Erdener Treppchen Kabinett #6 Mosel 750 ml

It’s hard to put a price on ungrafted vines.

Old-timers across Europe still complain that modern vineyards, with their American rootstocks supporting vinifera grapes, don’t have that je ne sais quoi of wines from the last century. 

So any wineries privileged enough to work with low-yielding, ungrafted vineyards tend to charge a pretty penny—iconic wines like Cappellano’s Pie Franco or Plouzeau’s Ante Phylloxera are significantly more expensive than the rest of their lineups.

Yet Dr. Hermann’s stellar Erdener Treppchen Kabinett #6—made entirely from ungrafted plants in the steep, “class one” section of this iconic Grand Cru (Grosse Lage) of the Middle Mosel—represents a stellar value.

It’s made by talented winemaker Christian Hermann, whose Riesling qualifications are not just inherited: Before taking charge of his family’s operation, he spent time working with the most renowned names in the region: Dr. Loosen, J.J. Prum, and even cult producer Willi Schaefer.

We’ve even secured a tiny quantity of the perfectly-aged 2018, which is absolutely on fire after a half-decade in the cellar. Pour this beautiful, gently sweet bottle with a soft cheese or a salad and marvel at the way that it packs so much crushed rock and salty lime flavor into a frame of barely-sweet apricots and pears.

The Erdener Treppchen (the staircase or podium of Erden) is one of the great sites in Germany, ranked as a Grosse Lage (aka Grand Cru) by the prestigious growers organization, the VDP. Just above the legendary Prälat—named for the archbishop of Trier—and next to the famed Urziger Würzgarten, it trades its neighbors crumbly red-slate for treacherous soils of blue Devonian slate and the intense stone-fruit and lime dialectic that comes with it.