On the 19th RieslingKenner held a sold out event at the Chicago wine bar Easy Does It in collaboration with vom Boden to showcase the amazing wines from Hermann Ludes. This was really the first full debut of these incredibly unique and beautifully traditional wines here in Chicago. The idea of the event came together around the thought of introducing the magic of these wines to the good people of Chicago and while doing that giving us a chance to highlight and support Abundance Setting, a charity that is doing amazing work in our community. The event, with the generosity of our friends at Vom Boden and the 50 plus people who attended our event, we were able to raise a bunch of money that will go to support the wonderful efforts of encouraging and supporting the advancement of women and working mothers in the culinary and hospitality industry to have a thriving career while maintaining a quality of life at home.
A huge thank you goes to our friends at Vom Boden, Collin Moody, Zack Eastman, and all of those that came out to support us and our efforts.
Here are Patricks brief notes on the 15 different wines that we poured for our incredibly fun deep dive into the world of Ludes. Please take all of these for what they are and that is a quick impression of how the wines showed on this particular evening and in the context of each other and the style of wines being made at Hermann Ludes.
2021 Hermann Ludes Riesling “Hermann”
In the world of Ludes, this is an absolutely fun and juicy wine that brings a smile to your face.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett “Gackes Unten”
Like mineral water with fresh lemon, this is incredibly pure and flinty with deep layers of minerality all wrapped up in an incredibly elegant and layered frame. LOVE this wine.
2020 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett Feinherb “Gackes Unten”
The minerality is there, but the 2020 vintage really speaks in this wine when next to the 2021 and provides a wine with a ton of grip, more body, and extremely long finish.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Kabinett
This is just flat out lip-smackingly good. Great energy, tension and very tasty.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett “Terrassen”
Initial nose of Mosel stink that blew off to show tons of minerality and a fruit character that is slightly more radiant than the others. I love the juxtaposition of savory and crunchy fruit.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett “Gackes Oben”
This showed better to me than it did at the winery. You feel the fruit more than you do on the Gackes Unten, but this also has an added level of herbaceous notes.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett “Monster”
This was a wow wine tonight. The finish was everlasting and the fruit was incredibly piquant.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett Feinherb “Monster”
Super playful and racy. This leaned toward notes of grapefruit and mint.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Spätlese
Crazy good bottle of wine. Another wow wine for the night. The finish lasted like 5 minutes. This was slightly more full, but full of tart pineapples and tangy fruit.
2020 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Spätlese
Again you really feel the vintage here, this was more rich, ripe and sweet. I love the wine, but next to the vibrating acidity of the 2021s this suffers.
2021 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Spätlese “Speyer”
Similar to the Ritsch Spätlese, but the fruit was a touch softer and a smokey element was there. This is a wine to age.
1994 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Spätlese
I threw this into the mix and it didn’t disappoint. So fresh and pure. In a wonderful place that showed the mature notes of this great winery and vineyard.
2004 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Auslese
People loved this wine. It had that combination of youthful and mature interplay that can be so delicious. Felt like an aged Kabinett that had a ton of pleasure.
2009 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett trocken
This wine is all about nuance and purity. Tons of minerality with delicate fruit. It actually stood up to the younger wines better than I thought it would. So good.
2017 Hermann Ludes Thörnicher Ritsch Kabinett trocken
Another great example of vintage variation. Huge acidity, but I feel like you could taste the greener acidity of that vintage in comparison to the riper acidity of the 2021s. This was bright, racy, and fresh.
This was an incredible tasting that showed the super high level of these wines through amazing consistency and quality. Watching our guests react to the racy beauty of these wines was a lot of fun to watch. I think Chicago has a lot of new and excited fans of the wines from Hermann Ludes.
