Introducing Hermann Ludes

The under-the-radar Hermann Ludes wines will be getting broader distribution through Vom Boden. Lyle is going to continue working with them as well. These are incredible wines if you like edgy tension filled high acid Riesling. I had a life-affirming visit this past August and finally posted some photos on instagram…

This reminds me of when Falkenstein and JB Becker were first released in the U.S. No one knew about them and I just could not believe how great and unique they were and frankly how cheap they were! Now all of the older vintages of JB Becker are almost gone and Falkenstein is highly allocated.

IG Post:

A deeply moving visit at @weinguthermannludes

I was introduced to these wines by @fassselectionswine and have been obsessed with them since. Julian was one of the first growers I reached out to for our August trip. Get on Lyles list for other growers lke this.

The tasting is in a small surreal wooden hut that takes you far back in time, just like the wines.

Julian and uncle Hermann did not say too much during our tasting but I could FEEL they were hyper-tuned into us and our reactions to their wines. My love of riesling is based on energy, reverberation and tension. The Ludes wines nail this! Also integrity and soul, again these are perfect descriptors of the Ludes wines.

After a thoroughly moving indepth tasting we went to the Thörnricher Ritsch. You can’t ever fully appreciate German riesling until you see firsthand a vineyard site like this (swipe right). When we arrived in the mosel, growers under age say 50 were clearly extremely stressed and edgy because of a significant anount of wet weather that had not been seen for many years. The old timers had seen this many times before. The most mindblowing comment of the trip was when Julian casually mentioned he was spending 16-18 hours per day, seven days per week in the vineyard to combat the wet, cold growing conditions! This is why I love German wine! These steep and I mean steep old vineyards are extremely difficult to farm and not many growers are willing to put in this type of work, clearly Julian is and he takes his family legacy seriously.

It was an honor and life-affirming experience to meet uncle Hermann and the extraordinarily talented, driven young star Julian.

So excited that in addition to Fass you will be able to get these through @vomboden
YES you read that correctly, these wines are so important that Lyle and Stephen have agreed to co-distribute them! Kudos to them for doing this for Julian and all of us🙏🏼 Lastly, I bought insane amounts of Falkenstein, JB Becker, Julian Haart, Muellen and more truly singular German Wines when they first hit the U.S. and I regret not buying much, much more. Trust me 2-3 years from now these will be highly allocated and double in price…

I’ve been on the Ludes for several years now thanks to Fass. Top stuff. The mid 90s ex-cellar bottles have been fantastic.

Cool. Have some in the tasting queue at home. It’s been a while since I tried one.

I see from your website, Robert, that you have a marketing partnership with Von Bodem. You really should have disclosed that, because your post is basically a PR release.

I don’t question your genuine enthusiasm for the wine, but the board has rules about commercial posts, as you have been reminded many times.

Sorry John…I have zero interest in Vom Boden or Fass Selections and will gain ZERO from this post. In fact this post will cost me money when people realize how great the wines are and buy up all of the old stock. I have already had a couple people in Germany reach out. I have mentioned many times that I am partners with Stephen of Vom Boden in source | material. You are right I should have added it to the post.

.0000001% of my income comes from source | material, it is truly just a passion project that I do to tell the world how great German wines are. And I would add I personally spend a lot of money on the rieslingstudy events I do and traveling back and forth to Germany to continue to learn more about German wine.

As someone who introduced this board to MacDonald, Sandlands, Beta/Jasud, Maitre de Chai I hope I have gained some credibility.

These are $25 geeky wines…do you really think I am schilling???

Really enjoyed the 1993s/1994s that Lyle brought in.

Will the usual retailers be carrying these (Crush, Kingston Wine Co, etc)?

I was going by this statement on your website:

about us

Source Material is a marketing | events | creative collaboration between Robert Dentice, the German wine collector, @rieslingstudy founder, vinyl fanatic and gourmand better known as @soilpimp and Stephen Bitterolf, the founder of vom Boden and @rieslingfeier.

Morning Dennis, are these under cork? The foils look unusual in the IG photos above.
Bz

Yes, cork (at least the ‘90s library releases). The last one I opened had a cork that just pushed right into the bottle with virtually no friction, but the wine was terrific.

Yes I said above and many, many times here I am partners in source | material with Stephen. There is no marketing partnership. I have zero interest in Vom Boden and the wines they sell and also Fass Selections but I have been a big supporter of both and all of their producers for years.

I would think so.

They admittedly has a terrible TCA problem in the 90s and that is why Uncle Hermann switched to scewcap. Sadly, the 90s wines do have a high TCA rate which is such a shame because when they are on they are magical.

There really are a couple of rather “fervent” Riesling evangelists on this board… so much passion

Was this who made the '94 (I think) Spatlese you opened at Riesling Study at Rappcats? That might have been my favorite wine of the day. Certainly up there.

I bought several based on Lyle’s passionate notes. I hope to receive them soon to enjoy!

Yes it was! And Lyle sold them for $28! Direct from the winery.

The '94 Thornricher Spatlese is one of my top wines of 2021 and probably the best QPR I’ve found in years. Clumsily dropped one on the floor at my storage facility two weeks ago when I was pulling one to drink…heartbreaking. Have one left.

Anyone had the '93 Auslese that Fass offered? I’m still waiting on my shipment, but wondering how these compare.

When I was hanging out with Bob Collins in the early 2000s (and selling for Old Vine Imports for a short time), he imported the JB Becker wines. I drank a representative number of older vintages. They were definitely different, in that they didn’t taste like typical prädikat-level wines. It’s through Bob how I also discovered Daniel Vollenweider’s wines.

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Did a comparison of a 1995 and 2010 Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Auslese last night. Almost everyone liked the '95 more but there wasn’t as much difference in the wines as I expected. Both were great–but the '10 had more acid and zip. Love this producer

Curious what you paired them with?

A little surprised that the 10 was not more different, because of the screw cap.