97 Point Grand Cru / Grosses Gewachs Pinot Noir, $47.99 a Bottle - Allocated

 The 2019 Vintage

 - Stunning Fruit Density

 - Remarkable Fruit Clarity

 - These Are Must Buys for Pinot Lovers. Must Buys.

2019 Thörle Probstey Spätburgunder "GG"

 - 97 Points Stuart Piggot, $47.99 

 - Firing on all Cylinders Right off the Bat

 - Nose: Deep and Penetrating

 - So, So Perfumed

 - Wild Cherries, Forest Floor

 - Oolong Tea, Minerals and Subtle Spices

 - Palate: Sweet, Dense, So Clear

 - Sweet, Silky and Super Deep

 - Almost Painful Concentration

 - Tiny Berry Super High Quality Fruit

 - Allocated with a Decent Allocation

The Thorle Brothers

As we noted in the riesling offer, the Thorle brothers are most famous for their pinot noir. Their pinots stood toe to to with very good 1er cru Burgundies at a famous tasting a few years ago. And the Thorles have gotten better since then and their vines are older.

What is the upside for this winery?

Honestly, I have no idea how great these wines can be. They are already stunning and the
Thorles are still very young. The history of German pinot noir is being written before our eyes.

The Wine

Probstey is one of their two "Grand Cru" sites and drinks well earlier but still has the ability to age and should be aged for 10-15 years. But Probstey is so seductive young. Probstey is the more windy and is a south facing site with sandy and limestone soil. It's the warmer of the two Grand Cru sites but also has a knack for snappy acids allied with the richness that comes from the warmer site. 

The 2019 Thörle Probstey Spätburgunder "GG" which is $47.99 a bottle on a 4-pack is a masterpiece of a Probstey and easily the best young one I've ever tasted. This is the so called "warmer" site but it for me it just means the delivery system for the fruit, mineral and structure is firing on all cylinders right off the bat. The Probstey is the Pinot you pull for your "I only drink red Burgundy" friends and drop this on them blind and their whole world view on Pinot will be altered at the minimum and changed forever at the maximum.

Holy moly. This is psychotic. What a nose. Deep, penetrating, wild cherries, forest floor, and so, so perfumed. An earthy sweetness is just overwhelming. Amazing. So elegant and delicate. Yet so deep and vivid. Best young Probstey Pinot nose ever. Amazing purity to the fruit. High quality here. The deep cherry fruit is constantly changing between dark and light cherries. So detailed and vivid. Just a pleasure to sniff and sniff. Oolong tea, minerals and subtle spices add to the aromatic lightshow. Just ridiculous. Palate is sweet, dense and so clear. The clarity on this is bananas. Sweet, silky and super deep. Velvety tannins and so much energy. Terrific wood spice on the nose. Adds so much. Complexity just beyond.Almost painful concentration. Amazing cherries. A literal tiny cherry explosion. So concentrated with perfect tiny berry super high quality fruit. It just explodes and is so detailed. It's the earthiest, sweetest most perfumed Pinot fruit you can imagine. All balanced by perfect lip-smacking acidity. Genius. 

Finish is all limestone, sweet cherries and velvet. Straight. Really long, intense and very flavorful finish. Like the best sweet tart ever. Really compelling character. These are the results you get from perfectly healthy, ripe Pinot Noir fruit, which Christophe Thörle so eloquently stated in an email to me. A masterpiece. So good today. But will age a decade at least. Below is the 97 Point Piggot review. 

"The deep and complex nose of blackberry, forest berry, wet earth, bitter chocolate and smoke leads you into this powerful and highly structured pinot noir. So dark, yet so invigorating, thanks to the super-vibrant and mineral acidity. Then comes the astonishingly long finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold."- 97 Points Stuart Piggot

2019 Thorle Probstey Spatburgunder "GG" - $49.99 ($191.96 4-Pack)