Tchaikovsky's Forgotten Work - The Storm - Two Wines That Are the Stuff of Nature

 Sven Nieger - A Very Important Estate
- Wines of Pure Terroir ... Nature in a Bottle ... Magic

- I've Never Had Anything Like Them
- Indigenous Yeasts

- Already a Top 20 Dry White Producer in Germany
- Like if Ziereisen made Riesling
- Long Offer - Please Try And Read It All
- Debut Vintage in 2013 - Made In A Garage
- JJ Morel's Spiritual Successor at Fass Selections

Some of the Last Dry Rieslings from 2019 That I Will Sell

2019 Sven Nieger Riesling "ungeshminkt"
- Nose: Superbly Mineral, Floral, Subtle with Deep Stone Fruits
- Apricots, Mineral
- Incredible Structure and Density
- Really, Really Long and So Fine
- Densely Fruited
- Really Delicious Fruit

- Superb Citrus Fruits, Apricot, Peach Pit
- Unusual Combination of Denisity and Vibrancy
- A VERY Different Riesling
- At $20.99 a Case This is Value on Another Level. Gave 9.4 on Delectable. 

2019 Sven Nieger Riesling "unbestechlich"
- One of His Grand Crus
- A Wow! Nose
- Jumps Out of the Glass At You
- Huge Fruit and Spice 
- Minerality on the Nose is Just Bonkers
- Flowers, Vineyard Peach, Apricot on the Pithy and Fleshy Nose
- Palate: Very Dense Lemon, Spice
- Minerals Made of Petrified Lemons
- Incredibly Persistent and Present 
- Very Dense for a Citrusy Wine

- Huge Acid/Huge Refinement
- Impossibly Complex
- Gets to Every Nook and Cranny of Your Palate
- The Baden Version of Muellen's Great Huhnerberg Trockens

- So Distinctive & So Unique. Nothing Like This. 

- Insane Value at $41.99! (9.5 Delectable)

The Storm
Most people have never heard of Tchaikovsky's The Storm.Indeed, it is a curious work.Tchaikovsky wrote it when he was only 24. He was on vacation and likely needed something to do.It is an overture and was never performed during his lifetime.The Russian music critic Herman Laroche called it "a museum of antimusical curiosities." Ouch.Tchaikovsky himself never even published the work during his lifetime.

Indeed, the piece seems a bit random. Seemingly lacking in any formal structure. It's not a storm in the classic sense of cymbals bashing in imitation of thunder.More that the storm starts and stops in fits and spurts.

It's a piece that grows on you.The seeming randomness, like nature itself, something quite beautiful and evocative. Lovely musical themes flit in and out. It meanders about. There is a crescendo and then... it ends.

The Style
This is what the wines of Sven Nieger are all about. They are some of the most fascinating and delicious Rieslings I've ever tasted in my wine career. They have the same effect on me as the wines of JJ Morel. These Rieslings are almost crystalline and vibrate on their own plane. All the wines are indigenous yeast fermented. They ferment without So2 until August and then undergo a partial malolactic fermentation. It's a simple recipe. These are wines of pure terroir... of nature in a a bottle. Magic. 

2019 at Nieger
I've waited this long to offer the 19s as they are really hard to describe. I'm super excited to start with two 2019s which knocked my socks off. 2019 is by far the best vintage I’ve ever tasted at Nieger. He also sent me 17’s next to the 19’s and wow it was no contest. Yes he made very good 16s but the 19s are liquid electricity. I missed out on the 19 Laibles but these might be better. Do not miss these wines as they are works of genius .

The Wines
Up first is the inexpensive one which I don't normally lead with but I had no idea this was this cheap. The 2019 Sven Nieger Riesling “ungeshminkt" can be had for $22.99 a bottle on a 4-pack and $20.99 a bottle on a case. What a great wine. A brilliant version of this.

On the nose, lemon oil, huge minerals, some green tea. So delicate and playful. Citrus. Citrus jelly. Really clear and mineral. The nose is just superbly mineral and so so pretty. Floral, subtle with deep stone fruits. Stone fruit pits. Hint of sponti adds to the allure. I'm so happy I have a winery now that has that sponti aroma. It's similar to Lauer in that way. 

The palate is super stoney and mineral. It's terrifically juicy and balanced and really makes your mouth water. It's amazingly clean, super pure, scary elegant and so so precise. It's got stupid incredible structure and density for a wine that is $22.99. I mean, it's kind of crazy. It's really, really long and so fine. It's so refined. The refinement is what really gets you. Huge acid and drive on the palate. Amazing texture. Lime and rock flavors mixed with some killer herbals and bitters. Awesome structure and density but so lithe. Mosel like nimbleness and purity. Just a terrific terrific bottle. Really the biggest revelation of these recent 19 Riesling Tastings. This has just crazy and acidity and freshness. What a finish. Lime sweet tart such mineral drive on this. Superb citrus fruits, apricot, peach pith but not messy peach flesh. So refined. It gets so delicate on the finish with this delicate purity that is insane. Lime blossom lingers in the finish as your mouth waters. Just a stunning stunning wine. I want this to be the first Sven Nieger wine everyone tastes. You will get it immediately.  When I tasted it I thought it would be much more money as I had no prices for almost 2 months after tasting the wines. I did find out which was Grand Cru/Premier Cru/Village but still didn't know how insane a value this wine was until I got the prices from Sven.

This was glorious on day 2 and maybe better. Nose is an intense perfume. Bitter citrus, flowers and minerals. Wow. Truly wow. Gorgeous clarity. Palate is softer than yesterday’s acid bath. Lovely citrus fruit and terrific purity and balance. Sappy galore. Great concentration and complexity. Long. So so mineral. 

Up next I've got one of his Grand Crus. The 2019 Sven Nieger Riesling “unbestechlich" for $41.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This is an INSANE value! This is like a GG Riesling. Or think of it like Jaspis Riesling. This is an outstanding bottle of wine. A remarkable bottle of wine. The uptick in quality from the last wine to this wine is significant. 

The minerality on the nose is just bonkers. An assault that smacks you right out of the glass. Flowers, vineyard peach, apricot on the pithy and fleshy nose. The nose let’s you know you are in rarified air. Superb complexity and such depth. Floral, vanilla extract and superb freshness. Herbal as well. Some citrus peeking through. Tangelo skin and pithy. Huge huge minerals. Confectionary. Ripe. Enormous complexity. Funky, engaging sponti aromas as well. Really a wow nose. Ripe but just perfectly ripe enough to showcase perfectly healthy and ripe fruit. Superbly clean and stunningly pure. Sick nose. So distinctive. Apricot, iodine, saline, superb minerality. Forest scents. So much. On Day 2 an even more stunning nose. Complex. Lime. Apricot. Mineral. Loads of wet earth and mineral. Soupy and so clean. Stunning purity. Has such an amazing distinctive character that it's like Muellen's Huhnerberg in a way. No nose like it.

The palate is rich but cleansing with brilliant stoney flavors on a long and structured palate. It's incredibly persistent and present while getting to every nook and cranny of your palate. The Grand Cru grip and length is there in spades. It's just stunning. One sip and you're just like this is a great wine and I can't wait to see where it goes. It's got superb complexity and an insane persistent minerality throughout. There is a compelling mid palate richness that quickly moves into a super stoney and fresh finish. Thus is incredible. Deep, juicy and with impressive breadth. Obviously showing younger than the 17 he sent me but also has more concentration and purity. Awesome freshness and grip. Terrific fruit, citrus rides on a wave of minerality on the finish. Superb length and clarity. Lovely hint of spice on the finish. Stunning. Even with some air the nose goes krazy and gets so pungent. Insane citrus and depth. So floral. Stunning! Wow that palate is the ultimate rich/fresh combo. That contrast is insane and sets this apart. After air the aromas are just like the most beautiful cloud one can imagine. It's so so refined and just an unreal wine. Grand Cru all the way and the longest wine of many that I tasted. Just a work of art.

On Day 2 the palate is just breathtaking. Elegant, fresh and with huge acids. Dense and deep but so ultra refined. Complex and super juicy and that acid really goes into overdrive on the finish. Terrific mineral complexity just dances on the palate. Gorgeous interplay of fruit and mineral. Elegant, refined and so so fine. Unreal and will age for 15+ years. 

Some History
The long journey that has led to Sven Nieger and to offer the brilliant Rieslings of Sven Nieger is really something else. Af least to me and maybe some of you. It started with an email to me from Stephan Reinhardt who had also CC'ed someone named Sven Nieger. I already had one Sven from the Pflaz who we all know and love, Sven Klundt, but is it possible for one importer to have two Sven's in Germany that make stunning and totally unique Riesling? Yes it is. In the email that Stephan Rheinhardt and Nieger wrote to me, Sven wrote something that I will always remember. "I hear your the guy to sell crazy wines from crazy places." I loved it. Not that I don't sell wine from traditional places like Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Mosel and the Rhone, but if you speak to me my eyes light up (trust me they do) when I speak about Pinot Noir from the Mosel or Frühburgunder from Franken or Verdesse from Isere.

After we established via email that I wanted to taste the wines, Sven sent, are you ready for this, 18 bottles of wine to my hotel in Beaune in February 2019. 18! I had multiple vintages and really had no idea how to differentiate the quality levels as they were labeled with names I had no idea what they meant. More on that later. I only knew that they were all Rieslings. They were from Baden. Sven had traveled all over the world tasting wines and when he came back to his native Germany he had a strong desire to make Rieslings but he did not have any vineyards. So he decided to take grapes from vineyards that he leased that were almost abandoned and made small batch wines in his garage. That is passion and dedication. His first vintage was 2013 and the guy is a mad genius. To make Rieslings this filigreed, pure, refined, elegant, crystalline, complex and delicious takes very very special skills. He is a master winemaker and I was not looking for epic Riesling from Baden but sometimes it finds you. And boy did it find me. I had to sell these because they are remarkable and more important, they are distinctive. There is nothing like them. They are like if Ziereisen made Riesling is the best I can come up with. So different than Laible. These wines are insane. I tasted all 18 bottles over the next 2-3-4-5 days in Beaune and really lived with them. Tasting them multiple times a day. I had no idea what was Grand Cru/Premier Cru or Village. Today's offer is based on that tasting and these wines were my top two of the 18 bottles. Essentially it was blind because I had no idea how he classified his vineyards until after I tasted them.

Sven has worked at many wineries and a few I know but you have most likely not heard of. He's worked in New Zealand, Baden, Rheinhessen and the Pfalz. This is as insane a startup as I've ever heard. No pruning shears, tanks, machines, buildings or any other accessories. That's unreal to me. His parents have absolutely no experience with viticulture or any type of agriculture. His wife and dad do not even drink wine but are trying it a bit more since has opened his own winery. They help every step of the way and the winery would not exist without them. In 2015 all of his wines were downgraded, like Enderle & Moll and Ziereisen from Qualitsweine to Badischer Landwein. You cannot mention any type of vineyard in this designation on the label. The tasters apparently like more technical wines and not the more wild and structured wines of Nieger. He's in pretty good company with Ziereisen and Enderle & Moll in the Landwein club of Baden. His vines are mostly 40-50 years old. He's got 80% Riesling and 20% Pinot Noir planted and yes I will offer the Pinots in the future. Sven then rented a house with three garages and an economy building which also is the size of a double garage. This was the de facto winery.

Varnhalt

He now has 3 hectares in an area of Baden called Varnhalt. I never have heard of.  Baden is an odd region in that 1) it covers a huge amount of ground from North to south, and 2) it's really 2 regions (North and South) that are separated by an area that is not part of the region. Varnhalt is in the very, very northern part of the Southern region. The producers we normally work with (Ziereisen, Enderle & Moll, Mobitz) are in the south of the southern part. And there is not much riesling grown there because it's too hot. Laible is towards the north of the southern part but his mircrolimate is so unique, he may as well be in the Mosel hours north. Net, net, Varnhalt is a unique microclimate in Germany.

2019 Sven Nieger Riesling "Ungeschmink" - $24.99

($91.96 4-Pack, $251.88 12 bottle case {$20.99!}) 

2019 Sven Nieger "Unbestechlich" - $43.99 ($167.96 4-Pack)