Riesling has captured the hearts and minds of the most dedicated wine aficionados (aka wine geeks) for decades now, and today’s discovery is the answer to the question: why? Sourced entirely from one of Germany’s most important “Grand Cru” vineyards, Berg Schlossberg, and just hitting its full, regal stride at age eight, this towering, bone-dry, old vines masterpiece is bursting with beguiling aromatics and draped with textured layers of sensual fruit, spice, and minerals. To put it in context wines of similar pedigree from Burgundy, Piedmont, or the Northern Rhône would cost five to ten times as much. There’s nothing more romantic (to us) than world-class wine, with bottle age, at a super-affordable price. Can Riesling be your valentine? Absolutely!
Germany’s Rhinegau encompasses a small stretch of the Rhine river that spends a few miles turning from its general south to north/northwest trajectory to an east/west one. Here, vineyards are planted on steep hills with rare and coveted southern exposure, and they have been prized for their wines for millennia. Though the Mosel region to the west of Rhinegau has been slightly more prized for “Pradikat” wines (designated by ripeness and alcohol potential, and often, though not always, containing residual sugar) historically, the rise of the GG–aka Grosses Gewachs, aka Grand Cru Riesling that is bottled dry–has benefited no region more than Rheingau. That special southern exposure, steep slopes, rocky slate and quartzite soils, and the ever warming summers have made this relatively small German wine region a nationwide leader in world-class wine production.
Berg Schlossberg is one of the most important vineyards in the Rheingau, and has been a Grosses Gewachs since the early days of the designation. The vineyard sits right at the edge of the Rhine’s brief east to west dalliance, just before it turns back to the north. The vines are planted on some of the steepest grades not just in the Rhinegau, but in Germany and likely the world. I’m talking about gradients of 45 to over 60 degrees! Combined with the high levels of solar radiation due to the slope’s bulge towards the sun and its reflection on the river, and you have the perfect ingredients for powerfully built, deeply complex, very long lived wines.
Tilbert Nägler knows all this like he does the back of his hand. He is the sixth generation of Näglers to run this small estate, farming and making the wine with only small changes of modernity. The family’s vines in Berg Schlossberg are around 50 years old which is why they use the “Alte Reben” or old vines label. Tilbert sees his job as “maintaining” the inherent quality of his terroir and his fruit, rather than simply “making wine.” That approach does wonders for this soaring bottle of “Grand Cru” Riesling (even though he chose not to use the official GG designation for the 2017). At eight years of age it’s just hitting its peak drinking window where it will remain for at least a decade. The aromatics are transcendent: Multitudes of fresh and dried flowers, citrus zest, white peaches, green apple skin, petrol, dried mushrooms, and boatloads of minerals that confirm the pure quartzite and slate soils of the vineyard. The body is medium-full, and bone-dry, bursting with honeyed textures of crunchy fruit, savory spice, and again those crushed rock minerals. It’s a tour-de-force of a wine and it blows my mind how inexpensive it is considering. Grab as much as you can before it is gone!
