The Thörles Have Come out of Nowhere to Make Some of the Best Red and White Wines in Germany Mark My Words These Guys Will Be Recognized As Elite. Soon.

"...up there in the first league of Rheinhessen dry Rieslings alongside the best GGs from the established VDP producers!"
Stuart Pigott on the 2012 Holle Riesling

Quite often, you can tell when winemakers are great even before you taste the wines. Everything about the estate is just perfect. The tasting area and how it is decorated. The professionalism with which they conduct the tastings.  Even the logo ( I love the logo).  The Thörle brothers are creatures of precision and perfection.  The wines have that absolute precision, focus and crystalline expression of terroir that you see in the great winemakers like Shaefer Frohlich, Battenfeld Spanier and Chavy-Chouet.  They took over an estate that sold most of its grapes and within under a decade have turned it into one of the hottest new estates in Germany.

I hate to repeat myself, but this is another buy them before they're famous.  It's another Murat, Chavy-Chouet, Galeyrand, Enderle & Moll.  It's why you buy from me; to get the before-they-were famous (and expensive) wines. Pre-Unicorn If you must. These guys are very good at marketing so it won't be long.

The first wine is the 2013 Winzerhof Thörle Probstey Spätburgunder for as little as $39.99 on the 4 pack.  This wine is so stunningly well made, it's really textbook single vineyard Premier Cru Pinot Noir.  It might be better than that - it had just been bottled a couple of months before I tasted it.  The nose has perfect, light Pinot aromatics.   The palate is predominantly soft plum fruits with perfect acidity and "silly" tanins - they are there, but they are so well integrated, you barely notice them.  The wood is perfectly integrated - it provides background structure, but you can't taste it.  Their use of wood is perfect (20% new oak), I even asked them to write a blog post for me on the use of wood in Pinot Noir.  At under $40, this price is a joke - an equivalent quality wine in Burgundy would cost 2-3 times this price.

The Riesling is just as good.  Thorle is in the Rheinhessen but they are close to the Rheingau and you can tell it most from this wine.  The 2014 Winzerhof  Thörle Schlossberg Riesling ($34.99 on a 4 pack) is sort of like a cross between German riesling and Grand Cru Chablis.  The nose is classic, pure riesling.  The palate is a mineral rockstar.  There is also lovely citrus fruit and acidity but this wine is, like great classic Chablis, all about the minerality that comes from the limestone soils.  An utterly brilliant wine with just incredible focus and purity that is as transparent as air in its expression of its terroir.  I know that you're thinking, "oh another great riesling," but these guys are really, really special.  You really need to try at least a bottle of this.  You'll be annoyed you didn't buy more but, I'm warning you so my conscience is clear.  

The Thörles make the wines the hard way - with meticulous work in the vineyards.  All spontaneous yeasts, no fertilizers, no herbicides or pesticides.  The brothers are very serious about every aspect of their work but are also incredibly friendly.  I'm honored to be working with them.

2013 Winzerhof Thorle Probstey Spatburgunder - $42.99

 ($159.96 4-pack) 

2014 Winzerhof Thorle Schlossberg Riesling - $36.99 

($139.96 4-pack)