2017 Battenfeld-Spanier Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs
- One of the Best Noses on a Grand Cru Riesling That I sell
- So Harmonic and Balanced, it Almost Boggles the Mind
- Stupifying Complexity
- Maybe The Most Elegant Wine of The Rheinhessen in 2017
- Amazing Texture and Vivid, Precise Flavors
- A Top, Top Flight Wine for Under $55 - Direct from the Estate
2017 Battenfeld Spanier "Ex-Prime" Riesling
- At $16.99 on a Case Purchase, Maybe Our Best White Value of the Year
-The Only Gutswein I Sell - It's That Good
- Minerality and Acidity But Great Fruit
- Vivid Apricot and Ripe Peach Skins
- Buy As Much As You Can Store
"Winemaker of the Year"
Vinum 2018
"Vintner of the Year 2015"
Falstaff
"My own perspective is that while his wines have long been impressive in their relatively strict way, Spanier, along with his clearly talented team, has entered completely new territory in 2016, delivering a collection less rigid in its self-conscious sense of structure and mineral underpinnings and instead more dynamic and unapologetically thirst-quenching as well as more sensitive - or, if you will, more "transparent" - to nuance."
David Schildknecht
A lot has happened in a year and Battenfeld Spanier is more accomplished and awarded
than ever now:
- Joel Payne, who used to be at the Gault Milau which was THE most important wine guide in Germany, has opened up shop with a new wine guide called Vinum which is highly respected and has come on very strong with a sterling reputation. Battenfeld Spanier was crowned winemaker of the year for 2018. It is the highest honor that a German winery can achieve.
- Another highly respected wine guide, called Eichelmann awarded them.
- Battenfeld's sister winery got Best White Wine Collection.
- H.O. Spanier became a member of the Académie Internationale du Vin on November 30, 2017. This exclusive and prestigious association was founded in Paris in 1973 by Steven Spurrier to bring together the international wine elite and the world's most-renowned wine estates.
I sometimes feel like Battenfeld Spanier is our Taj Mahal. People always say that the Taj Mahal is very famous but gets little attention from Indians. Similarly, Battenfeld Spanier has been with us for 6 years. I sometimes feel that they don't get as much love as they should. This is one of the top estates in Germany and while the wines certainly sell well, as good as they are (and as inexpensive as they are), I always feel that they are under bought. That will soon not be the case as in 2016 and now 2017 they gave reached another level and there is very little that separates them form Keller. Well, maybe price. ;)
Today I am offering the most popular Grosses Gewachs I sell, that is the 2017 Battenfeld-Spanier Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs for $54.99 a bottle on a 4-pack.
2017 Vintage Notes
In 2016 Carolin thought the Frauenberg was the best wine of the three GG's but in 2017 shethinks the same thing again. It's fascinating the difference between 16 and 17. 16's are rocking, playful, engaging wines and have been since they were bottled. 17 is such a nice contrast in that the wines are more serious and sinewy. Dense wines. Riper but also with more acid than 2016. It's a vintage that will age very well but will not drink that well young like 2016 or 2014. This is in the mold of 2015, but that was in the mold of 1990 whilst 2017 is much more of a 2001. There is an intensity and seriousness to 2017s I adore. The wines that are meant to be really structured are really really structured. I love, love this vintage and the allocations are a skoche less than last year as it is bit of a short vintage. The quality is very very high and I think these will age as long or as longer than 2015. There is a dramatic intensity and even an austerity to some of the wines as the material is incredible.
The Nose Truly one of the best noses on a Grand Cru Riesling that I sell. This is STUNNING. Limestone, citrus pith, apricot, peach skin, suggestion of fresh ginger, almost nutty and stunningly bright. Smells like you just arrived at the beach. Fresh grass, some light sponti aromas,
The palate is insanely fresh with terrific minerality that assaults your palate but in a playful way. It is so ultra refined and so ultra pure as in 16 they turned a corner and have continued on this path of "roundness and refine my" and have upped the refinement even more in 2017. Where Am Schwarzen en Hergott is powerful, this wine, while not bashful, is so harmonic and balanced, it almost boggles the mind. It takes over your mouth with waves of fruit yet is balanced by what I called in my notes, "an oyster." Riesling on limestone gives a very unique minerality not seen in other areas of Germany with more slate or sandstone. It is brighter and more powerful. That is the vibrating minerality that is so ever present in this wine. It tickles your palate is the best way to describe that unique Frauenberg minerality. It is ridiculously complex and so pretty. So elegant and unreal complexity off the bat that only gains every 15 minutes. The finish is a mile long. It's ultra long. Wow. Huge citrus power and depth. Intense and deep structure with amazing delineation and like a staccato finish that dissipates so beautifully, like a sunset going down over a distant horizon yet it's vivid till the last second. The finish is like the best, most saline, sweetest, balanced oyster you have ever had. It's so distinctive that I kept going back and back to it. You want this in your mouth. The texture and vivid precise flavors are like clouds passing through on your palate due to the incredible finesse. Brilliant wine. There is also great power here but it is deceptively powerful because of how it vibrates and how elegant it is. This and Hergott have risen above Kirchenstuck now. It is very evident. This is on some Montrachet level juju. 2017 is a vintage with terrific fruit definition, mineral force and clarity, forceful present transparency (vineyard expression) nuance and KILLER acids. Make no mistake, the power, balance and concentration in this wine are equal to anything you will get in white Burgundy. I am and will continue to be befuddled this wine is $54 a bottle.
This is the Fass 4-3-1 plan in that one should kill one in its youth and then age the remaining 3. I love drinking GGs in their youth no matter the vintage. It's fun, they are not brutally closed usually and it's always educational.
Up next is just the most special value wine I sell in Germany. Because of my model I sell mainly Ortsweine quality which is the equivalent of Burgundy 1er Crus. I don't sell Gutsweine which is like Bourgogne Blanc/HCDN/HCDB. But the only Gutsweine I sell is from Battenfeld Spanier and that's like saying the only Bourgogne Blanc I sell is from Roulout. Or Arnaud Enter. Those are not normal Bourgogne Blancs just as the 2016 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling (EX-Prime, it used to be called Prime) is not your normal Gutsweine. Today, the 2017 Battenfeld Spanier "Ex Prime" Riesling can be had for $18.99 a bottle on a 4-pack and $16.99 on a case. This is their "Gutsweine Reserve" as they also make one lower than this. I only offer case prices on wines I think are particularly great values and that can age. This wine has what all the other estate wines I don't offer has, it has fruit. Most of these estate wines have an intense mineral drive and no fruit and I believe they are good wines but only for geeks, even though they are cheap. Not only does it have glorious and refined fruit but also length, persistence and a sense of refinement. The 2017 EX-Prime on the other hand is not even a normal Gutsweine in that Battenfeld Spanier makes one below this. Think of this like the Roulot Bourgogne Blanc or the Dugat-Py Bourgogne Rouge Cuvee Halinard. Transcendent wines that are limited by their appellation names. The wine is so juicy, so persistent and has a sense of finesse and refinement and the perfect balance between minerals and fruit. The fruits are vivid apricot and ripe peach skins and really stay with you. It's so lovely and fresh with no shortage of minerals and fruit. It is as pure and as enjoyable as any wine I've tasted in Germany and represents outrageous value.
2017 Battenfeld-Spanier Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg
Grosses Gewachs - $56.99 ($219.96 4-pack)
2017 Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling Trocken (Ex-Prime) - $20.99
($75.96 4-pack, $203.88 12 bottle case{$16.99})
No comments:
Post a Comment