🍷 Tell Me Wine #18 — Peter Lauer: One Grape, One Hill, Sixteen Wines

## #### *Leiden · Friday 25 September 2026 · 19:00 · (address shared after payment)* **Around 1900, a bottle of Riesling from one small hill in Germany cost more than Château d'Yquem. Then the world forgot. This is the evening we remember.** 🍷 For the eighteenth chapter of *Tell Me Wine*, we go somewhere very narrow and very deep: **the Saar**, a cold, slender valley near the Luxembourg border, barely twelve kilometres long, where Riesling clings to brutally steep slopes of blue Devonian slate — rock that's been there for 400 million years. 🪨 And we spend the whole evening with **one producer**, on essentially **one hill**. Sixteen wines. One grape. That's the whole night. *** ##### 👤 Why Peter Lauer Because this is what happens when a genuinely brilliant hand meets a site the world had stopped paying attention to. The Lauer family has farmed in the village of Ayl for over **175 years**, and the estate is run today by **Florian Lauer** — who quietly redrew the map of the Saar after taking over some twenty years ago. Suddenly everyone had to notice that this valley, and one particular *sleeping giant* of a vineyard, was among the finest places in Germany for **dry** Riesling — something historically very un-Mosel — and that a completely different kind of sparkling wine was possible here. Lauer is one of the very few German growers who reach the top level in **three separate disciplines at once**: dry Riesling, sweet Riesling, and traditional-method sparkling. And there's something quietly radical in how he bottles: instead of Germany's official sweetness ladder, he numbers every **barrel** and parcel separately — a Burgundian, terroir-first logic. Each bottle is its own plot, its own decision. 🍇 *** ##### 🍇 What the evening is A guided tasting in **four acts**, and I won't spoil a single bottle. 😏 But here's the shape of it: We'll climb the same famous hill **twice** — once through the dry wines, once through the off-dry — so that sweetness only ever rises gently and the palate is never jolted. Then a single sweet jewel. And then the finale. I'm not going to tell you what it is. What I will say is that it involves something genuinely unique — bottles you are extremely unlikely to have encountered before, and quite possibly won't encounter again. It's the reason the whole evening is built the way it is, and everything before it is a climb toward it. 🤫 *** ##### 🧭 What we'll talk about * 🪨 **Slate, and why it matters** — 400-million-year-old rock, a 70% gradient, and what that does to a glass of wine. * 🍬 **Why sugar isn't sweetness** — the Saar's electric acidity means a wine can carry real sugar and still taste bracingly dry. You'll feel it happen. * 🪶 **Featherweight wine** — several bottles tonight sit at just **7–8% alcohol**, and they're anything but simple. This style physically cannot be made in a warmer place. * 📜 **The most expensive wines in the world** — how the Saar reached the top of every grand restaurant list around 1900, and how it fell out of fashion. * 👨‍🌾 **Three generations** — including a grandfather who drank a bottle a day and picked one barrel each year for everyone at his table. *** ##### 🥨 And to eat — the Saar on the plate too As always at *Tell Me Wine*, the glasses come with food. Alongside the sixteen wines there'll be a selection of **snacks from the Saar region itself** — because I'm convinced there's always a deep link between what a land grows and what its people eat. Tasting the food of a place next to its wine is how you really understand its *terroir*: the full, 360° story of a territory, told through both the glass and the plate. 🍷 *** ##### 💶 How it works — please read carefully! Places are **strictly limited to 12 people**, so here's the process: 1. **Click "Attending" (RSVP)** here on Meetup. 2. I'll then send you a **private message** with the full recap and a **payment link**. 3. The fee is **€40**. 4. **Your spot is only confirmed once payment is received** — the first 12 to pay are in. 🎟️ 5. Once you've paid, I'll send you the **exact address** in Leiden (the tasting is at a private location, so the address isn't public). Please note there may be a short delay between your RSVP and my message — I send them out manually, so bear with me. 🙏 *** ##### 🗓️ Practical info * **📅 When:** Friday 25 September 2026 · 19:00 * **📍 Where:** Leiden (exact address shared after payment) * **🍷 Wines:** 16, served in a guided narrative arc across four acts, with Saar-region snacks * **⏱️ Duration:** it's a marathon — expect around three hours * **👥 Spots:** 12 only — first paid, first in * **💶 Fee:** €40 (confirms your place) * **🌐 Language:** English *** ##### 👀 Who's this for? Anyone who loves Riesling, anyone who *thinks* they don't, and anyone curious what a single hillside can say when you let it speak sixteen times. You don't need to be an expert — come thirsty. But move quickly: twelve seats, and a line-up like this doesn't come around often. 🍷 *RSVP, watch for my message, and let's climb the hill.* Group: Art, Food, and Fun Going: 21 Group members: 3,794 Official listing: https://www.meetup.com/art-food-and-fun/events/316172459/