St. Laurentius Sekt

22 November 2017

Situated in Leiwen in the heart of Mosel, St. Laurentius is not your typical Mosel winery. As the title suggests, St. Laurentius primarily produces sekt and it all started when Klaus Herres-Wener took over from his father in 1982. Despite being a novice at sparkling wine, Klaus Herres-Wener was determined to turn his riesling grapes into sekt.

Starting up, Klaus Herres collected used champagne bottles and second hand corking equipment picked up from Champagne flea markets. Initially, production proved challenging and dangerous as several bottles exploded in the cellar. In those early days Klaus Herres wore thick gloves, a motorcycle helmet and a padded ski jacket when turning the bottles.

A lot has happened since for the sekt pioneers of Mosel and today they are widely considered as one of Germany's top sekt producers. They produce a wide variety of sekts made from riesling, spätburgunder, weißburgunder, chardonnay, St. Laurent and auxeroise. The fermentation takes place in stainless steel and the rieslings undergo a partly malolactic fermentation. The wines undergo a classic champagne style secondary fermentation for a minimum of 9 months. The annual production is 80.000 bottles and their bottling facilities are used by other producers in the area, bringing the total number of bottles filled at the winery up to a massive 330.000 per year.

We visited St. Laurentius earlier this year to taste their wines.

2015 St. Laurentius Elbling Brut Cuvée Catherine Sekt
87	Dry and mineralic. Clean and tight with notes of white peach and lime. Good mousse.

2015 St. Laurentius Chardonnay Brut
89	Light fruit in the nose. Flavour had white bread, lime, white flowers and grapefruit. Medium+ acidity. Fine mousse. Dry finish.

2015 St. Laurentius Cuvée Crémant Extra-Brut
86	Nose had minerals and hints of lemon. Flavour came out chalky with plenty of minerals, lemon and high acidity. Tight and dry.

2015 St. Laurentius Cuvée Crémant Brut
89	Peachy nose with hints of biscuit. Peachy flavour with citric and white floral notes. Good minerality. Medium acidity and dry. Good mousse.

2015 St. Laurentius Riesling Brut
89	Fruity nose featuring peach, apricot and lime. Flavour had plenty of ripe peach, lime, melon and grapefruit. Medium acidity. Dry finish.

2015 St. Laurentius Riesling Extra-Brut
90	Heavy fruit in the nose. Flavour had heavy ripe fruit with hints of brioche. Peach and mandarin. Medium+ acidity and dry.

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