Battenfeld Spanier's Titanic Am Schwarzen Herrgott GG 2020 - 97 Points Piggott One of Germany's Top, Top Producers

 2020 Battenfeld Spanier Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs

- Nose: Deep and so Much Aromatic Flavor

- Rich Minerals, Smoked Slate

- Palate: A Rotating Mineral Toothbrush

- Audrey Hepburn Elegance like Expensive White Burgundy

- Lanolin, Melon and So Much Complexity

- Precise, Insanely Fresh and So, So Refined

- Super Mineral and Opulent

- 95 Pts Stuart Piggott/95+ Stephan Reinhardt, WA

- Maybe the Geekiest of the 3 GGs

- Allocated/Very Limited

2020 Battenfeld Spanier Zellerweg Am Schwarzen Herrgott Grosses Gewachs

 - Same Winemaker as 98-100 Point Kuhling Gillot

 - 97 Points Piggott

 - This Will Be Allocated 100% for Sure

 - I Will Consider Total Support When Determining Allocations

 - That Is, Alas, How the Winery Determines My Allocation

 - Insane Nose

 - Honeysuckle, Caramel Nougat

 - Spice, Confectionary Notes

 - Apricot, Iodine, Peach Skin

 - Superb Head Spinning Minerality. 

 - Palate: Rainer and white cherries

 - Superb Minerality

- Allocated/Very Limited

2020 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling Eisquell

 - You All Formerly Loved This As "Prime" and "Eisbach"

 - The Wine Has Always Been Great - The Name Not So Much

 - Exactly What You Want in a $21.99 Riesling

 - Maximally Delicious, Fresh, Fruity and Mineral

 - Superb Confectionary Nose

 - Amazing Peach Flesh and Peach Skin, Apricot

 - Superb Minerals

 - Alive and Engaging

 - 90 Points, Stephan Reinhardt (Wine Advocate) (2019)

 - Case Pricing $17.99

On Supply and Demand and Wine Portfolios

Supply and demand curves are wonderful things. You find out the intersection, charge that price and at that price, supply and demand match up perfectly. There are never any lines or shortages (unless the port gets clogged up). It's a wonderful thing.

So the odd thing about Grosses Gewachs is that for some wineries, demand does exceed supply at
the price charged. Which means that the wines should cost more money. Why the wineries don't raise the prices, I have no idea. But that's the way it is.

Battenfeld Spanier and Kuhling Gillot are among the top wineries in Germany. These are high growth blue chip stocks like Amazon or Apple. And the prices are lower than they should be and the wines get allocated.

Now, we sell a lot of great wines. And there are a lot of perky little estates that make terrific wines and are amazing values. But Battenfeld Spanier is Battenfeld Spanier. It's an Amazon or an Apple. And if you drink riesling, it deserves a significant portfolio overweight in my opinion. These are wines that are already starting to break into Keller price territory at the top of the line. They will age wonderfully and that you will want in your cellar in 5, 10, 15 years.

I only have 60 bottles of each of the GGs. And for me to get these quantities, I need to buy the other Battenfeld Spanier wines (like the Esquell) which are also amazing and drink way above their weight. So balanced orders will benefit when I do allocations.

The 2020 Vintage

The 2020 vintage is going to go down as a classic vintage with a little extra. Weather-wise it leaned to the classic side (which I like). It was also the pandemic vintage and the winemakers spent an immense amount of time in the vineyards (there was nothing else to do). These are textbook rieslings that will really highlight terroir.

The Wines

The 2020 Battenfeld Spanier Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs for $52.99 a bottle on a 3-pack is an extraordinary value and one of the best GGs we sell and 2020 is a benchmark wine. The 2020 trio of Riesling GG's from Battenfeld Spanier will go down in history like the 01 Donnhoff Spatlesen or the 2019 Brisset Red and White Burgundies. Or the 02 Willi Schaefer Auslesen. Legendary wines. All of them. The depth and complexity of the Battenfeld GGs in 2020 is unreal. It is one of the best vintages ever for these wines. 20’s from Battenfeld are just insane.

Such a deep nose and so much aromatic flavor. Huge mirabelle plum, tangerine, citrus, huge spices and fruit skin. Confectionary, airy and heavenly. Complex and expansive. This has the roundness of Keller. Savory in the nose. Intense herbals and so, so deep. Earth. Rich minerals. Some smoked slate. Deep ocean like. The most perfect raw honey ever. Ocean air. Amazing. New nuances every 30 seconds. It's got lanolin, melon and just so much complexity it can't be called stable as it's always changing. What a nose. 

Rainer and white cherries on the palate but with superb minerality. Vibrating. Amazingly refined. So pure. So elegant. I mean this is crazy elegant then snaps with the sap on the finish. This is refined like Keller. Palate is dense but so lithe and has amazing inner mouth aromas where the minerality just guts your mouth. So precise, insanely fresh and so, so refined Super pure. Super ripe and yet so mineral. Chewy and so stunningly pure. Finish just dissipates. This is regal and aristocratic. The young prince has grown up to be a King! Extraordinary mid palate and then squeezes so much juicy fruit on finish. Then the minerality then cleans it all up. So so mineral. This wine used to be a wild child but now it is a mature person. Gorgeous. So juicy. Grand Cru all the way. The is so balanced and so pure it's crazy. Wow. A drink me now wine. Wow. 

"This super-elegant GG is hard to resist right now, due to the fine, peachy fruity, plus the delicate notes of citrus zest and white flowers. So sleek and polished on the palate, in spite of the considerable concentration. Such a light touch at the refined, salty finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold." - 95 Points, Stuart Piggott

"From Hohen-Sülzen in Rheinhessen, Battenfeld's 2020 Kirchenstück Riesling GG is pure and elegant on the nose that shows ripe and intense fruit along with great complexity in a rather "Burgundian" style. Amusingly, the wine seems open and reductive at the same time. Salty, vital and tensioned on the palate, this is a juicy, elegant and persistently salty Kirchenstück with a pure and salty but sustainable finish. Outstanding and surely the finest Kirchenstück I have ever tasted from HO Spanier! Tasted in Wiesbaden at the end of August 2021." - 95+ Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate

The Zellerweg Am Schwarzen en Herrgott is a fascinating vineyard in the cool Zellerweg on the Pfalz border. It's a terrific vineyard. Pure limestone. It is a forgotten vineyard but in 2010 they revived it. This is like Meursault meets Riesling in that it has precision, oodles of minerality but also a taught richness. The 2020 Battenfeld Spanier Zellerweg Am Schwarzen en Herrgott Riesling Grosses Gewachs is a doozy and can be had for $59.99 a bottle on a 3-Pack This got 97 Points by Stuart Piggott.

What a wine. Genius. Brilliant.

Insane nose of honeysuckle, caramel nougat, spice, mineral, confectionary notes, apricot, iodine, peach skin and superb head spinning mineralIty. It was even better on day 2. Nose of spice, apricot skin, peach skin, that has an oily and rich presence. Salty and mineral. Lifted and bright but also substantive. There is nuance and depth. Superbly complex. Dizzying aromatic array centered around spice and minerals.

What a palate. Elegant and spicy with tons of apricot and peach skin, and so juicy and energetic. Pure and sappy. So nimble but also has energy and substance for days. Citrus, marmalade flavors develop after some minutes. Juicy and so clean. Unreal. So pure. Sappy and dense. Balanced and long. This has serious stuffing. What a wine. Perfect ripeness balanced with scintillating minerality and energy. Chewy. Wonderful. After some air one gets lost in the nose and aroma. Dizzying. The best honeyed aromas. Pitted fruits now and more incisive minerality. So long. A stunner. This is terrific now and has terrific aging potential. On day 2, palate is fresh, nimble, textured and ripe. Beautifully presented apricots and such clarity and definition with the slightest hint of opulence that just puts this over the top. Dense, energetic and a super long, salty finish. Lingers and is so precise. Magnificent. 

"Plenty of yeasty and savory character here, but the ripe, peachy fruit wins out. In fact, there’s wonderful succulence on the medium-to full-bodied palate that's hard to resist. Then the massive chalk and green-herb character kicks almost bowls you over. Great concentration and a finish that keeps pumping out the citrusy freshness and salty minerality. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold." - 97 Points Stuart Piggott

Next up is a wine that has many incarnations and is now allocated. Yes. I can't believe it. It's also only $21.99. The 2020 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling Eisquell can be had for $21.99 a bottle on a 4-pack and $19.99 on a 12 bottle case. It used to be called Eisbach, then Prime and now finally Eisquell.

Superb confectionary nose like God dropped down from the sky the best cotton candy ever. Amazing peach flesh and peach skin. Apricot. Superb minerals. On day 2 just as engaging. Huge huge nose. So good. Pure and deep. Steely and mineral. Unreal depth for a Gutsweine.

On the palate, luscious and juicy with awesome freshness and minerality. So alive and engaging. Commands your attention. Concentrated and so pure with peach, apricot fruit and hella minerals. So balanced and pure. Just a brilliant Gutsweine. What energy and inner mouth aromas. Sappy and terrifically deep but also just insanely refreshing, linear and mineral. Bats .350 and should be .290. 

On day 2, pure, steely and rich yet also insanely fresh and pure. Longer than it should be. Stunning icing on cake texture.  Drink now and over the next 5 years. 

Below is Stephan Reinhardt's review. 

"The 2019 Riesling Eisquell is pure, piquant and precise on the well-concentrated and crunchy/stony nose. Intense and tight on the palate, this is a spectacular, complex and crunchy Riesling with a silky texture, fine tannins and a lingering note of lemon juice. And you get all of this for a more-than-moderate price. Highly recommended. Tasted at the domaine in March 2020." - 90 Points, Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (2019)

2020 Battenfeld Spanier Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs - $54.99 ($158.97 3-Pack) 

2020 Battenfeld Spanier Zellerweg Am Schwarzen en Herrgott Riesling Grosses Gewachs - $61.99 ($179,97 3-Pack)

2020 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling Esquell - $21.99

($79.96 4-pack, $215.88 12 bottle case {$17.99!})