Spät Sale: 30% Off Two Riesling Icons!

We hold some truths to be self-evident, one of them being our passion and belief that German wines are more relevant today than ever.  Wine Exchange has a long, somewhat ‘evangelical’ history with the genre.  The focus has been a little sporadic over the last few months for a couple of reasons.  There has been a lot of retooling of systems over that time that has taken away opportunities to work with some categories.  In the case of German wines specifically, we haven’t been as excited about the 2014 vintage and have taken a lot fewer ‘swings’ than we normally do. 

But we still believe that given the difficult farming, striking site specificity, and overall quality, that this genre offers as much as any and is rather underpriced for what it is.  Also, with the influx of Asian eateries where traditional Riesling is by far the best match, the category has never been more relevant.  But there we go preaching again.  Our history proves that there are a lot of fans of great Riesling still out there, and we’re going to do our best to create a few more ‘converts’ along the way. 

Today’s offering doesn’t pretend to be religious experience (unless you love a great Riesling along side some nam kao tod, ‘hot-pot’, or classic wursts like we do).  Given the current market, our current approach is a ‘PG’ version of ‘American sniper’.  No one gets hurt as we quietly await the opportunity to ‘pick off’ a great deal.

We hit a couple of beauties here.  These are top notch producers (as well long time favorites of ours) working top shelf sites at fares over 20% lower than our already discounted prices were before.  Sehr gut, ja!

The Monchhof Urziger Würzgarten Spatlese 2012 is another classic effort from this estate.  Robert Eymael knows his vineyards well and really brings the ‘spice’ out in his Würzgarten (which literally means ‘spice garden’).  The ripe, juicy white currant fruit with added notes of violet, honey, and kiwi is bright, expressive and lively.  This is on the fruitier side of spätlese but there’s still plenty of cut.  List is $30 but we’re under $20 here (the best price around), a great value on a top quality spätlese. There was no Wine Advocate score on the 2012 (possibly why we got the deal in the first place…the world works that way sometimes), but this one smokes the 90-point 2011 (and Robert’s 2011s were some of the best).  Great spät at a kabinett price?  It’s like getting a free upgrade. 

Young Tim Frohlich has always been a confident fellow, and our one concern when he started out was that his wines cost more than a lot of proven performers.  But he is at the top of his game now and has to be considered one of the elite guys in the Nahe, if not all of Germany.  Compared to other local Nahe superstars, Dönnhoff and Diel, Schafer-Frohlich’s stuff is actually a relative value at its normal $40-45 price (not to mention we think he has outperformed them in the last few vintages).

At this new, lower price, the bold, authoritative, loaded 2013 Schafer-Frohlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spatlese is a must.  Wine Advocate 93+, their words, “Still young, this Spätlese just suggests its true class and complexity which shines through in a long, piquant and grippy finish.”  It’s definitely showing more in that ‘plus’ area now.  We had forgotten just how good this one was until we re-tasted it the other day.

Great Riesling at great prices, it’s your turn Riesling fans.  If you’re not, you don’t know what you are missing! Very limited.