The Ziereisen Gutedel Alte Reben 10-4 "Jaspis" Offer (95 Points in 16/17 But That's Not the Point)

 Salvador Dali 5 Centuries Before His Time
2019 Ziereisen Gutedel Alte Reben 10-4 "Jaspis"
 - An Emotionally Moving Experience
 - The Most Densely Mineral Wine I've Ever Had
 - Complex and Delicious with No Fruit (Not a Typo)
 - Insanely Complex Nose
 - On a Level with Thousand Dollar Prestige Burgundy
 - A Wine You Have to Experience if You Drink the World's Great Wines
- If Chave Hermitage Blanc & Ramonet Chevalier Montrachet Got Married and Had a Rebellious Kid

- 2016/2017 Got 95 PTS, Wine Advocate, Stephan Rheinhardt

On Hieronymus Bosch, Time Travel and Wine

This is easily the most preposterous ahead of its time wine offer that I do every year. I call it the Hieronymus Bosch offer. For those of you (likely almost everyone) who are not connoisseurs of Hieronymus Bosch, let me bore you with some background. Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter whose work could be pinned to the mid 20th century. It has the surrealistic bizarreness of Salvador Dali. Except, of course, that it was painted in the 15th Century. Perhaps his most famous work is the "Garden of Earthly Delights" which is in the Prado. I've decided to post it here instead of yet another picture of Hanspeter. For me, the style and technique are centuries ahead of its time, so much so that if I read that Bosch was a time traveller, I would have no trouble believing it.  

The Wine

Today's offer is equally ahead of its time. The wine is miraculous but stylistically so different from pretty much every top wine sold in the states that it may as well have been made by a time traveller. This is a wine I believe in like maybe no other wine in the world. I believe that the Jaspis Alte Reben I am selling today is one of the greatest white wines on the planet. Up there with the top wines from Keller, Roulot, Boudignon Roches Neuves, Ramonet, Chave, Lafon and the like. Not only do I not have to sell this wine, most of you will think I'm crazy to offer it. Maybe I am. But one thing that is not in debate is the high quality and distinctiveness of this wine. The Gutedel is a sticker shock wine but it is still a value in my book. 

The Wines

Today I am honored to offer the top white wine at Ziereisen, the 2019 Ziereisen Gutedel Alte Reben 10-4 "Jaspis" for $117.99 a bottle per 3-pack. I know a few might want cases, so I can negotiate price with you. This wine is an emotionally moving experience. It is the most mineral wine I have ever had. Nothing comes close. If you like fruit, this is a an easy pass, there is none. But if you like mineral slathered individual uncompromising wines of the highest quality this is for you. This is 100% Gutedel aka Chasselas. 

The nose is insane. Like a Domaine Leflaive or Ramonet Grand Cru Burgundy.Maybe Chave Hermitage Blanc. It is so dense you can cut it with a knife. So layered. Just insane. You'll smell this wine for hours on end as it changes and mystifies your olfactory senses and makes them overload. Lavender and bath soaps seem to come in and out. I have never smelled a white wine that is this aromatically complex. Not even close. It is focused like a laser in the mouth. It is so straight and focused you cannot believe it. 

Once it is in your palate we are in Chave Blanc land. Or perhaps Haut-Brion Blanc. But also a grandiosity like only Chevalier-Montrachet can bring. Make no mistake this is on the level of thousand dollar bottles of prestige White Burgundy. This wine is no joke. The wine, when young can be austere but only because of the mineral density. There is not a more densely mineral wine I have ever had. It pushes minerals to places in your mouth you did not know even existed. It is juicy and so dense oh so dense it cannot be believed. Almost tannic. It is a targeted and focused palate explosion. Clean like a baby after a bath. The cleanest. The palate is bone dry yet retains a juiciness that is just awe-inspiring. 

The finish is endless minerals. This is genius wine of the highest degree. I cannot recommend this enough. It's like Haut Brion Blanc/Chave Blanc/Domaine Leflaive but really is uniquely Ziereisen. Only Hanspeter could make a wine like this and have the balls to charge what he does. But when one is confident in one's abilities, you have wines like this. You have to experience this wine. You need to. It is easily the greatest and most interesting white wine I sell. It's a why we drink wine type of wine. It changes every minute. Over three hours that is 180 different wines. See? It's a value. 

Gutedel is the local name in Baden for Chasselas. Chasselas is a grape found mainly in Alsace, Switzerland and small pockets of the Rhone. Chasselas is one of the oldest grape varieties in the world. The vines are 40+ years old and made from ridiculously minuscule yields. The terroir is all limestone.

Below is Stephan Rheinhardt's review for the 2016.

"The 2016 Gutedel Alte Reben 10-4 Jaspis opens enormously pure, deep, fresh, precise and flinty on the dramatically focused nose and reminds me (again) of the finest Burgundies. The "10-4" in the name of the wine refers to the fact that it comes from a vineyard that is planted with 40-year-old vines with 10,000 vines per hectare, which may have something to do with the price, as this is probably the world's most expensive Chasselas. It is intense and concentrated on the quiet and elegant, flowing palate, where the lack of acidity (if you like to name it analytically) is compensated by very fine tannins and bitters originating from aging the wine in a 650-liter oak barrel (from the German cooperage Assmann) as well as an overall lively and finessed character. This is Gutedel for Pinot fans, whereas its mineral tension and mouth-tickling salinity and freshness is that of a Puligny-Montrachet. Despite so many great Rieslings, this is one of Germany's most exciting white wines. Ziereisen's slogan-"Make Gutedel great again"-has been proven here as mission fulfilled. Not too bad: 12.5% alcohol means you can drink a bottle on your own easily." - 95 PTS, Wine Advocate, Stephan Rheinhardt (2016)

2019 Ziereisen Jaspis Gutedel 10-4 - $119.99 ($353.97 3-Pack)