Monday, June 4, 2018

A Wile E Coyote Price Equilibrium - 2 "Grand Cru" German Rieslings Under $40, 94, 95 Points - Prices Will Skyrocket Soon (The Wines Are Amazing)

These Wines Are Going to Significantly Increase In Price
 - Just Like Muellen, Rings, etc. Before Them
- Likely The Last Pre Fame Pricing Vintage

2016 Thörle Hölle Riesling
 - An Epic Wine By A Young Master Entering His Prime
 - Dense, Mineral, Opulent, Powerful
 - Incredible Purity and Balance
 - A Wow Wine
 - 95 Points, $37.99 - Amazing QPR

2016 Thörle Probstey Riesling Trocken
 - More Subtle - Reminds Me of Grand Cru Chablis
 - Dense, Mineral, Lovely Citrus Fruit, Great Spice
 - 94 Points, $33.99 - Insane QPR for an Elite Wine

Most of us are familiar with the legendary struggles of Roadrunner foe Wile E Coyote against
gravity.  He runs off a cliff and keeps on churning his legs in midair ... defying gravity ... and then he realizes that he is hanging 1,000 feet above the ground ... he stares at the audience ... and then plummets to the ground.  For those of you who have not seen this epic cartoon series, here is a link to a compendium of the gravity defying clips.

At this point, we are in a similar sitaution with the prices up Weingut Thörle, except that prices will soon skyrocket up, not down.  The Thörle brothers took over the estate and have turned it from a supplier of bulk juice to one of the top winemakers in Germany so fast that they are relatively unknown even in Germany.  Of course, their recent scores are have increased demand but, like our hero, Wile E, prices have stayed the same suspended for the merest instant, giving us likely our last chance to buy the wines at crazy low prices.

2016 Rheinhessen Vintage Notes
The sweet spot for 2016 dry Riesling is arguably the Rheinhessen but I'd listen if you also argued for the Mosel. 2016 is a vintage, that for some reason is wide wide open and doesn't seem in danger of shutting down anytime soon. I had a 2016 Battenfeld Spanier Am Scwharzen en Hergott Grosses Gewachs Saturday night and the wine, which usually is the most structured and backwards of their GG's was wide open and just singing.

The Estate
These guys are a Riesling/Pinot Noir/Sylvaner triple threat. The Rieslings are what I fell in love with first as the intense minerality and very Fassy acidity is right in my wheelhouse. They are intense and explosive and really built to age. Each Grand Cru, the Schlossberg which is being delivered now or in the Fall, the Hölle and Probstey are remarkable on their own, but taken as a group are just an incredible set of "GG" style Rieslings that can easily compete with wines 2-3-4 times the price. They want to get in the VDP but it takes time so take advantage of these insane prices for those brilliant 2016s. Christophe Thörle brought his hammer to the 2016 vintage and delivered his deepest, yet most filigreed Rieslings so far. These are World class wines of unreal depth and terroir expression. These are at once nimble but at their heart fiercely mineral wines that show off the Grand Cru sites they hail from.  These are some of the greatest wines in the Rheinhessen and Matthew and I have adored them for years as have some of you, but now the world knows and they will. As soon as the scores came out I reserved a finite amount of these wines.

The 2016 Thörle Hölle Riesling can be had for $37.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack and this is their top flagship "GG" wine. It's from a brilliant vineyard with loads of limestone soils. The Holle has an evocative, deep mineral and floral  nose to start.  Insane citrus oil, dried stone fruits, oodles of minerals and it is almost like an airy stone fruit confit with lots of floral over and under toned. It's really compelling. The minerality from the dense limestone soils in the Holle give the wine a brilliant aromatic lift.  It's a very balanced wine yet also opulent, powerful and dense. It's a bigger wine than 15. Extraordinary purity and freshness. Great mouthfeel, piquant yet lacey, intense and very concentrated and mineral. The finish is long, complex and very mineral.  Stunning balance. Long and juicy with with insane length. The density, sap and power are all impressive but the silkiness that ties it all together is what sets this wine apart. It is also so straight and linear.  staff Compared to their other two Grand Cru sites the Holle's temperature is higher on average than Schlossberg yet is also more mineral than the great old site, Probstey.  The wine is incredible and I cannot wait to taste this when it gets here. Below is Stuart Piggot's 95 POINT score.

"Still rather closed on the nose, however, what comes through on the palate more than makes up for that. Packed with citrusy fruit, herbal and mineral flavors this is a bold and dramatic wine that has a massive, but very clean finish. Better from 2018." 95 Points, Stuart Piggot

Up next I've got another incredible "GG" style wine from Thörle, the 2016 Thörle Probstey Riesling Trocken for $33.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack. Oh man is this a great wine yet so different than the Hölle.  This is a very subtle wine that reminds me of Grand Cru Chablis. Our of all 3 Grand Cru sites this can be approached the youngest. If this were a VDP wine it would be $50 for me and via 3-tier $80.  Wow. What a nose. Best Probstey nose ever. The mineral intensity is something else. The nose beckons with vivid yellow fruits like dried apricot and peach fruit skins along with minerals on a bed of even denser mineral. This is a bone dry wine with 1 gram of residual sugar. Super wafting aromas that get more intense and nuanced by the minute. Amazing nose. Intense and stunning mineral palate  with wonderful concentration and outrageous density. It's very opulent and dense. Crunchy intense minerality with such juicy and complex fruit. Amazing spice adds so much to the mid palate. Salty finish which is typical for this wine. For me this the ripest of their 3 Grand Cru Riesling sites but also has that fantastic Thörle minerality. The finish is exceptional. Complex and very long. The vineyards of the Rheinhessen are not flat like people think and Probstey has its dips and valleys. I adore this site. Stuart Piggot gave this 94 POINTS here is his review.

"Because of the full peachy fruit you might think that this is a luxury, easy-drinking wine, but at the finish there's a big wave of mineral power. Drink now." 94 Points, Stuart Piggot 

2016 Thörle Holle Riesling Trocken - $39.99 ($151.96 4-pack) (LIMITED)

2016 Thorle Probstey Riesling Trocken - $35.99 ($135.96 4-pack) (LIMITED)

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