93points, Robert Parker –  Named after the cold winds coming through the Wisper valley (or Lorcher Tal), which brings cooler flavors of salts and algae, the off-dry 2015 Rheingau Riesling Lorch Wisperwind offers flinty and herbal aromas. There are also ripe, concentrated grapefruit and lemon aromas, along with some chalky flavors. Full-bodied, piquant and juicy, this is a super ripe, concentrated and expressive Riesling with great intensity and a chalky texture. It is dense and silky, but rather smooth than it is crystalline—and that has to do with the chalky subsoil under the four-meter slate layer in this plot of the Krone grand cru. This is a Riesling from the lower plot on the Rhine river and Eva is excited about the potential of this vineyard. Here is what Eva has to say about the Wisperwind phenomenon: “The Wisperwind is a local wind phenomenon from Lorch in the Rheingau. It is a mountain wind, which blows at night or early in the morning down from the Lorcher Wisper Valley. It occurs at calm, windless and cloudless highpressure weather conditions. The mountain wind emerges when deeper air layers on the slopes of the Taunus chill out, due to the height and the Taunus’ open geological width. The much colder, thicker and therefore heavier air then flows from the slopes of the Taunus heights down into the Lorch Valley, towards the Rhein river. The narrow extend of the Lorch Valley can create the effect of a tube that speeds up the wind and sometimes even creates extremely strong squalls of wind. Besides geology, the steep slopes of quartzite, slate, and their microclimate, the Wisperwind also has an influence on the growing and ripening conditions of the grapes—and the character of the Lorcher and Lorchhäuser wines. The air is rough, smells of salty algae, and it creates loud spherics when the Wisperwind hits the air mass on the Rhein River.

100% Riesling