Peter Lauer Riesling "No. 25 Ayler" Trocken '24

From Germany’s Saar—the coolest, most filigreed corner of the Mosel—Ayler Riesling is all about lift, herbal nuance, and slate-driven clarity rather than overt fruit. Few estates capture that “old-school Saar” feeling as consistently as Weingut Peter Lauer in Ayl, a benchmark producer that’s been farming here since 1830, estate-bottling since the 1920s, and today run by fifth-generation Florian Lauer (first vintage 2005) from a compact 13-hectare holding farmed with a deeply sustainable, organic-minded approach. In the Saar, Lauer was also one of the early pioneers of more dry and “dry-tasting” Riesling styles.

2024 was a brutal year in the Saar: hard frosts dramatically reduced yields at Lauer—down roughly 40–50%—yet the wines are a triumph, coming across as wonderfully classical, weightless, and almost ethereal, with the kind of quiet intensity that only shows up in truly cool vintages.

The 2024 Riesling “No. 25 Ayler” Trocken is Lauer’s high-level dry village bottling, sourced from the Scheidterberg and Rauberg side-hills. It’s bone-dry (under 1 g/L of residual sugar) and beautifully deceptive: wildly floral and minty, with pinpoint delineation—white flowers, anise, green tea, citrus, almond, and candied grapefruit—then a pure, herbal palate with a smooth, zesty finish. This is a real work horse at the table, great with sushi, but one of my favorite wines to bring when eating spicier Indian dishes.