Union Square | Takeover with Christopher Loewen of Weingut Carl Loewen

Please join us at Corkbuzz to welcome Christopher Loewen of Mosel's Carl Loewen!

When: Monday, January 13th, 2025, 5-7 pm

Where: 13 E. 13th St. New York, NY 10003

What: Curated Flights and Wines by the Glass from Carl Loewen

About Weingut Carl Loewen and Christopher:

Weingut Carl Loewen has grown over the past three generations from 1ha to 18ha today. The estate is currently run by Christopher Loewen and his father Karl-Josef. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Karl-Josef was always looking for old vineyards and grew the estate by purchasing steep old vineyards (low yielding) that no one wanted to work anymore. Now the estate is spread over 4 villages – Leiwen, Longuich, Detzem, and Thörnich. More than 50% of the holdings are ungrafted, very old vines, from 60-120 years old, and on steep slopes. In 1998, Karl-Josef bought his first parcels in the Thörnicher Ritsch vineyard, the second steepest vineyard in Germany, second only to Bremer Calmont in the lower Mosel. Karl-Josef had visited a wine fair in Thörnich and felt that the quality of the site, which is grey weathered slate and quartzite, was very high, but there was a sharpness, a green flavor, similar to Saar wines that he found. One of the first things that he did in this site was to cease the use of chemical fertilization. This is an important step and one that is taken immediately when vineyards are purchased by Loewen. Christopher notes that it takes many years for a vineyard to recover from these treatments and to come into balance; the first vintage that the winery made a dry wine from this site was 2008, a full ten years later. 

After the 2013 vintage, Karl-Josef purchased a top site in Longuich, 20 minutes by car from Leiwen, where the winery and Klosterlay are located. The site, the Maximiner Herrenberg was part of the original auction sale in 1803, sold to the Schmitt family in Longuich.  Bruno Schmitt, the 6th generation to farm that site was getting older and without any heirs. He gladly sold the vineyards, Maximiner Herrenberg and Herrenberg to Karl-Josef.  These two vineyards are part of the same hillside and are home to some of the oldest vineyards in the Mosel. The bottom section carries the name Maximiner Herrenberg and was planted in 1896. This section is closer to the Mosel river, benefiting from both reflective light from the river and a more common onset of healthy botrytis. The higher portion, simply called Herrenberg, is cooler and planted in 1903. From this Christopher makes a wonderful Kabinett in the style of those wines from 4 decades ago with lower residual sugar. The soils in these two vineyards are similar – Devonian era slate with a band of red iron and volcanic red soil running through these vineyards. Christopher notes that there is a band of soil that runs between Urzig and Longuich that carries this type of soil, which is very rare in the Mosel.

Reservations are encouraged, but not required.  Our full wine list and dinner menu are available.