World Class German dry wine for under $20

This my first e-mail with the new company I am working with, the Greene Grape. I will post them all on this blog the day they go out. I understand many of my readers will know some of the basic information here, but I'm giving you the whole salami for the first shot. Future offerings will be properly geekified for the Rockss and Fruit audience.

When casual wine drinkers think of German Riesling or Riesling in general, sweet is the first word that comes to mind. That is not the case with the 2008 Knebel Riesling trocken von den Terrassen, which is about as dry as it gets in German Riesling. This wine delivers so much pure, riveting, concentrated fruit on a delicate frame of minerals and finesse - it is almost not to be believed. All for under $20! Yes, it does carry around 7 grams of residual sugar, but hey so do many California Chardonnays, but the sugar at this low level adds only a textural element and no perceived sweetness. Hailing from the cool 2008 vintage, this wine is an exceptional value in dry German Riesling as it has an uncommon depth, elegance and richness - a "mini-Spatlese" as they like to call it at the Knebel Estate. It is picked at Spatlese ripeness but is fermented almost completely dry. So not all Spatlese is sweet, which is something to remember. While many German wines that are exported can carry significant amounts of residual sugar, it is important to remember that the wine is balanced with fruit, acidity and sugar, so sweetness is more of a component rather than what the wine actually is. Acidity is like the frame of a picture in that it provides the structure and frame of the picture and/or the wine. Without it the wine becomes an amorphous blob in your mouth. It also provides structure to the wine and cuts some of that sweetness. But, if you are not convinced yet then sweet (or fruity as they call it in Germany) German Riesling is not for you, there is a whole other side to German Riesling that is out there for the casual or adventurous wine lover.

Riesling is loved by many wine aficionados, experts and critics alike because of its versatility. It can be super sweet as in Trockenberenauslese, Beerenauslese or Auslese bottlings, with some of these wines having over 300 grams of residual sugar, or can be moderately sweet and less ripe as in Spatlese and Kabinett bottlings, be half-sweet as with all the various feinherb or halbtrocken bottlings, or almost bone dry as in all the great trocken (dry in German) or Grosses Gewachs/Erstes Gewachs (literally Great Growth/First Growrh) bottlings. So to summarize as all these terms do get confusing, whatever the ripeness level of the fruit, Kabinett, Spatlese or Auslese, the wines can be fermented to varying degrees of dryness from bone dry to off-dry. It is important to remember that there are two scales in German Riesling, ripeness and dryness. Also, remember they can match up in many different ways. That is why many growers will make multiple (sometimes up to 10!) bottlings within a certain vineyard. So all German Riesling is far from sweet and, most Germans typically drink drier fare with their meals.

The wine in focus today is the 2008 Knebel Riesling trocken von den Terrassen, which is a classic example of food-friendly, crisp, extracted and intensely mineral Riesling. And it is very dry. No sugar here. But that does not mean the wine lacks fruit. The Knebel Estate has been making excellent wine with the help of the great consulting winemaker Gernot Kollman for years now, and one famous critic (David Schildneckt of the Wine Advocate) puts Knebel in the elite estates of Germany along side such names as Donnhoff and Keller.

This wine is sourced from three different vineyards in the Lower Mosel (more on that below) that have a high majority of blue, grey and weathered slate and have very steep expositions. Von den Terrasen literally mean "from the terraces." The Winninger Hamm and the Winninger Domgarten are the two main sources of fruit with some also coming from Winnninger Uhlen as well. These are some of the hottest vineyard sites in all of the Mosel, so the wines are packed with ripe fruit. The Knebel's make wine very traditionally and respect their unique terroir by using spontaneous yeast fermentation in mostly steel but this wine is aged in their one, big, old Acacia barrel. Steel gives a wine crispness as there is no flavor from the steel or added texture. With an old Acacia barrel it "fattens" up the texture a bit which provides a nice contrast to the acidity. Knebel wines are known for that tension between rich fruit flavors and cutting, cleansing acidity. There is very minimal intervention and as a result the unique slate aromas give this wine lift and life.

This is a classic expression of dry German Riesling but also with the Knebel touch, which to me is a great core of nicely extracted fruit, balanced on a tightrope of minerals, acidity and slate. People who love German wine like me, ooh and ahh over slate aromas. Hopefully you will too. It is a perfect wine to go with all types of food as there is no heavy oak in the way and this wine is truly a mirror into these great sites. They say Riesling is the most transparent grape in the world and this wine shows it.

This is also a scintillating value as wines like this are a specialty of this part of the Mosel, as the more up you go on the river the more common it is to find sweeter wines. The reason I wax poetic about this being a value is that you have to spend much more money in other regions to get a wine of this quality. $40-$100 for a White Burgundy and $30+ for a wine of this quality in the Loire Valley. So this product is unique to this place of the world and delivers so much pure, riveting, concentrated fruit on a delicate frame of minerals and finesse, it has to be expensive right? Think again. If you buy by the case this wine goes down to $18.99 a bottle. Just startling for wine of this quality. The more you dive into Riesling whether it be sweet or dry, it is always an exceptional value. That is a bit of wine knowledge to never forget.

So How Much Is This Going to Cost?

* One Botttle Price - $22.99

* Special 6-Bottle Price -$20.99

* Special 12bottle Price - $18.99

If you want to buy this you can here. The price listed is frontline but your discounts depending on the amount you purchase will appear.