Two Sylvaner-Based Wines from the Winemaker Who Is Making Everyone Believers in Sylvaner
2016 Paul Weltner "Vilsenah"
- The "Mad Blend" with 20% Scheurebe Just Because It Adds That Little Extra Level of Eccentric Interest
- A Wine of Out of Bounds Aromatic Complexity
- A Palate Impact That Can Shatter Solid Granite
- Incredible Concentration and CUT, Jaw Dropping Mouthfeel
- Only the Second Year I've Gotten an Allocation
- A Fass Unicorn - 70 Cases Made
2017 Weltner Rodelseer Schweinlete Sylvaner "Alte Reben"
- Simply Outrageous, Crazy Complex
- Incredibly Crisp with Remarkable Length and Depth
- For $24.99 (Don't Let Price Fool You, Drinks like $50+!), One of the Best, Most Different Wines That I Sell
- Really Deserves It's Own E-Mail
It's been 5 years since we've been open and I have been lucky enough to sell the wines you
love to love and also love to gripe about the bottle shape. But I know all of you love the Bocksbeutel. How can you not? It's preserving a tradition in a world where "making one's life easier" is some sort of endpoint we all want to get to to achieve some sort of peace in the world. I say that endpoint is hooey and difficult wines to store are part of the struggle. Would you rather have no Weltner or Weltner with difficult bottles to store? I know the answer. Weltner is so special to me and to this company. Nobody brings in Bocksbeuetels. You need to know this. It is a massive massive pain in the ass. We finally have figured out how to ship them perfectly so they don't jostle in the box and break all the other bottles. Ha! Got you! I'm kidding. We didn't figure it out. We just ship them separately in different special boxes that we figured out will work. It's been 5 years and we just figured that out. You understand now why no one brings in Bocksbeutels? If you think it inconveniences you when it comes to storage I've got some stories to tell you. Call me in office hours. I have off site storage and maybe 4-5 cases around the house at all times. I have settled on using the Bocksbeutels as decorations and move them around my apartment till I drink them. So, why do I do all this and why do you all keep buying these wines?
Because there is nothing like the brilliant wines of Paul Weltner. It's been 5 years. I've tasted the competition and have tasted Paul's wines with age and it's no question that he is a top 10 white wine producer in Germany. Maybe I used to say top 15, but I think he's top 10. They are insanely undervalued for what they are which is Sylvaner made with the precision of Roulout and the ostentatiousness of Coche-Dury. Or to go a German comparison, they have the precision of Schafer-Frohlich and the roundness of Keller. They have what we internally call the wall of flavor. It's just an intensity and opulence that you get with so few wines. With a few years of age, and please HEED this, they go from profound to spectacularly profound. It is worth it to wait. 12s/13s/14s in the Erste Lage (1er Cru) category are all really in the zone now. 12 and 13 GGs are starting now. I'd hold off on 14-15-16 GGs for now. Every bottle is dramatic. These wines bring the drama and don't just open. They unfurl like a beautiful Persian carpet runner down your palate. They are extraordinary things of beauty and age only makes them better. They are also ridiculously cheap. Today I have two list favorites. A new favorite and an old favorite.
I am super excited to offer the 2016 Paul Weltner "Vilsenah" for $37.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. IF you bought the 2015, open a bottle and drink it please. You will buy twice as much 2016. I didn't have enough 2015 and am selling it on release this year as this wine is bonkers. Open one. The 2016 is better.
I tasted three vintages and we will get to that in a bit. The 2016 is 80% Sylvaner and 20% Schuerebe and that gets it to that rare place of a magical balance between the two grapes. Older versions were 50/50 and the Schuerebe became too dominant. There is also 36 hours of skin contact versus only 8 for the rest of the GGs. It is from old vines planted in 1968.
The nose is just sick. The greenest green fruits one can imagine. Sage, yeasty aromas, chamomile tea, flowers, sweet peas, black current, grapefruit, white pepper, mineral, just stunning waves of aromatic complexity. Amazing balance of huge fruit and also exotic mineral aromas. It wafts like nothing else after 45 minutes. A perfume that is incomparable. It is beyond GG almost because of the unique makeup.
The palate is what makes this wine even more impressive. It's the standout . Some wines are aromatic wines, some wines are palate wines, and some wines can be both. This wine has a wonderful all time nose but the palate impact is what makes it unique and even more all time, over the top delicious and distinctive. It is super duper concentrated and ripe, but amazingly elegant and refined. It has as much acid in 2016 as 2015 had, but 2016 has CUT. Huge huge refinement with such an array of original and exotic flavors that are so delicious yet you've never encountered them before. That's what makes this wine so cool. It's opulent and has the most jaw dropping mouthfeel that gets better with age. It's crunchy like you will not believe and has such a palate impact and mouthfeel it's like emotional. The 2012 had the sickest mouthfeel I've had in ages but only time got it there Paul told me. The 2016 has brilliant mouthfeel and texture but in 3-6 years it will be way, way better. Also Paul's 2016s have an amazing amount of raw material and I have found they drink better on day 2. They will need maybe even more time than his 12s which are drinking killer now. Anyway the wine has just the most ridiculous juiciness and wonderful deep and clear fruit. There are lots of inexpensive quirky blends all over Germany but in all my years I've never gravitated towards them as I did not consider them serious wines. Of course it takes mad genius Paul Weltner to completely change that paradigm for me. He made 800 bottles in 2016 and I have an allocation. This is limited. Buy it all. Please inquire about case pricing!
I also have the 2017 Weltner Rodelseer Schweinlete Sylvaner "Alte Reben" which for me is one of his signature wines, for as little as $24.99 on a 4-pack. This wine really deserves it's own e-mail it is that insane. It is what he is all about. Heck, one could say that this is what Sylvaner is all about and should aspire to. If you like white wine, do NOT miss this wine. It is completely outrageous and absolutely trounces every Sylvaner on the market at this price point and 20% higher! I adore this wine and never have enough. A bottle of the 14 in preparation for this email blew me away. It kept gaining and gaining in aroma and complexity. I want to open this wine it for anybody and everybody. I just did for an old wine salesman buddy of mine whose tasted it all and he was blown away. Jaded palates unite and buy this along with the regulars. It has insane complexity to burn. It echoes on the finish like no other white wine. So many flavors and textures and a bit of jagged minerality that bounces all around your mouth. The Schwainlate is incredibly crisp with remarkable length. and depth. It has that full-bodied 2017 ripe fruit, but insane acids as this is like a 2001-style vintage in Franken and the length is just incredible. It has a wild character to it all the while being so clean, pure and deep. The texture on this wine is crazy. It has so much of an herbal character as well with intense minerality from the deep Keuper soils. You've got sugar snap peas, ocean breeze, mineral saltiness, some hints of citrus in that ocean breeze and after 1-2 hours these little Bocksbeutels of goodness just sing. If you think that you know what Sylvaner can achieve, just throw out all of those preconceptions. The wine is just a unique drinking experience - I've never had any Sylvaner like it and the second best 1er Cru level one doesn't even compare. This wine has the structure to age for up to 10-15 years but is at its best always at age 4-10 in my opinion. One of the best values of the year.
2016 Paul Weltner "Vilsenah" - $39.99 ($151.96 4-pack)
2017 Paul Weltner Rodelsee Schwainlate Sylvaner Alte Reben
Erste Lage- $26.99
($99.96 4-pack)
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