The Next Burgundy Grand Cru
- This Wine Is In the Same League with Our Top Burgundies
- Burgundy Is the Ideal of Classically Made Pinot Noir
- Burgundy Does NOT Have a Monopoly on All of the Great Terroir for Pinot Noir
- There Is No Magic Pixie Dust
- Somehow, Switzerland Got Some Too
- Yes, You Can Drink Burgundy All Day
- But Burgundy Is About Appreciating Terroir
- If You Truly Love Burgundy You MUST Try This Wine
- Try the Road Less Travelled, At Least Today
2018 Weingut Riehen Le Grand Rouge (Pinot Noir)
- Reminds Me Most of 2 Grand Crus: Clos de la Roche and Clos Vougeot
- But with a Distinctively Gorgeous Alpine Element
- More Burgundian than His Ziereisen Label
- A Rare Opportunity to Try New Grand Cru Quality Pinot Noir from a Unique Vineyard
- Stunning Does Not Even Begin to Describe This
- Nose: Absurd - Blasting Lipstick Aromatics
- Intense, Deep, with Morey Spice and an Alpine Element
- Palate: Dense, Sappy, Explosive, Brooding
- Grand Cru Quality Texture, Purity, Concentration and Intensity
- Would Be Well Over $150 Through Traditional 3 Tier Stateside ($97.99 in this Offer)
- Dark Fruit, Dark End of Season Black Cherries
- Elite Elegant Richness
- The Closest Thing I've had to Elite Grand Cru Burgundy that is Not Elite Grand Cru Burgundy
2018 Weingut Riehen L'Unique Pinot Noir
- Swiss Liaison
- An Extraordinary Wine for the Money
- Nose: Off the Charts
- Earthen Scents, Alpine Grass
- Mid Season Cherry Fruit, Raspberry and Strawberry
- Wild Flowers
- Umami Scents
- Palate: crazy Energy
- Superb Dark Cherry Fruit
- Gorgeous Minerals
- The Fruit Here is Extraordinary
- Stunning Purity and Clarity
- Among the Best "Bourgogne Rouge" You Can Buy
The 2018 Vintage
2018 is the best vintage of Weingut Riehen (Swiss Ziereisen project) I’ve ever tasted. I’ve
tasted them all since 15, but 18 is on a whole other level. The wines have a depth that is just beyond any other vintage. There is elite finesse in the top 2 wines as well, the Le Petit and the Le Grand. But they also have that unique and compelling wild mountain Swiss character that makes Swiss Pinot so special. Wild flowers, wild soils, a plant as medicine medicinal character if that makes sense is what separates these wines. It’s always a treat to taste the best vintage so far of a winery one loves and also seeing them grow to the next level of quality.
The Next "Burgundy Grand Cru" and Why You Should Try It
Why is almost all of the elite Pinot Noir in the world grown in Burgundy? Did you ever ask yourself that question?
Did God or nature just create some magic pixie dust and only sprinkle it on Burgundy? Or is it that Burgundy is an ideal.
- An ideal of a meticulous approach to identifying terroir.
- An ideal of following winemaking techniques that allow that terroir to shine through.
- An ideal that is understood and appreciated by many of the top wine lovers on earth,
And if Burgundy is that ideal and not magic pixie dust, then as wine lovers do we not have the impetus, indeed the obligation to seek out and try new terroir that produces brilliant Pinot Noir? And more importantly Pinot Noir that is as different from Chambolle as Chambolle is from Vosne or Gevrey.
The opportunity to experience a completely new wine made by a master in elite terroir is something that most of us cannot do. The elite wines in Burgundy are known by anyone with a broswer. And the prices have been bid up.... a lot
The First Wine
For me for a new wine to be delicious and distinctive like this is as rare as it gets. It has something to it that I've never had or tasted before in Pinot Noir and I can only assume that it is the quality of growing grapes in the mountains. The AOC is Basel-Stadt and the soil is blend of limestone and loess. This needs, no demands, a two hour decant. It was pretty tight when I opened it but I had faith that a wine Hanspeter had a hand in would eventually reveal its greatness. And oh man is it great.
I don't often get Biblical. But it's not often I get to be the first store in the US to sell a Grand Cru quality Pinot Noir. And it's not just any random Pinot Noir, it's a Pinot Noir made by one of the top 2 German producers of pinot noir. The Germans and Swiss are scooping up the insanely small production as these are incredible world class wines that are taking their rightful place in the constellation. This is a big deal. My fingers are almost tripping over themselves I'm so excited to be writing this offer.
I'm thrilled to offer the Grand Cru style wine today from Weingut Riehen which is the 2018 Weingut Riehen Le Grand Rouge (Pinot Noir) for $89.99 a bottle on a 3-Pack. This is the Swiss equivalent of the Jaspis Alte Reben and you all know how profound that wine is. But this is better. After the 18s I’m convinced. This is the best Pinot HPZ has ever made and there’s some stiff competition. This is more profound as the Jaspis Alte Reben but it's completely different. Like the difference between a Richebourg and a Corton Bressandes (if I had to pick two random Burgundy Grand Crus out of a hat). But if there was one village that this epic wine reminded me of it was Morey St. Denis and Clos de la Roche and/or Clos Vougeot. Both of these when done correctly have a distinct earthy spice that sets these two Morey Grand Crus apart. The Le Grand has that but with an alpine mountain twist to it. It's quite profound and makes this wine all the more alluring. What a wine. Stunning does not even begin to describe it.
Nose is absurd. Dark fruit, dark end of season black cherries. Bursting from the glass and with that telltale Ziereisen fruit purity. Really intense and deep aromas that you can get lost in. So much of that Morey spice I was alluding to earlier. It's hypnotizing. The nose gives off those pungent blasting aromatics like lipstick does. Nose is all woodland berries, mountain spice, insane florals and sweet herbals and unreal mountain cherry. So alpine and floral. Captivating and enveloping aromas. Plum skin as well that is so so fine. Stunning purity, breadth and detail the nose. Enchanted forest floor aromas. Keeps changing and changing. Just stunning. 9.6 or 9.7 on the nose. Smell like Grand Cru Burgundy. But with air it gets insane!! Freaking unreal nose. Dark violets, alpine scents galore, the best and most pure, vivid black cherries I’ve ever smelled. Wow. Just stunning. Smells rich but alpine rich!
Dense, sappy and just ridiculously explosive palate. This is Grand Cru all the way in texture, purity, concentration and intensity. It's got that urgency. Amazing texture and mouthfeel with tons of dark fruit and spice. The wine is amazingly brooding and has incredible sweet, ripe yet firm tannins and a fierce mineral backbone. It leaves your mouth watering. Stunning levels of power and concentration. The quality of the tannins is something special. So fine. Like silk. ZOMG the palate. Insane fruit and sweetness. So sweet and so intense. Wow. Mid to late season red and black cherries. Just so elegant and pure. Suave and chewy but silken tannins and impossible length. Just sickness. So long. Endless. Sappy and noble. There is a very serious and substantial structure here. This is truly amazing wine. Better than the 15. 9.6 for now.
After air the texture on this is truly stunning. So velvety. Amazing sweetened and no hard edges. Wow that palate. Incredible freshness and density allied with just the most amazing finesse. This is as grand as any burgundy grand cru. Man, I could smell this forever. Amazing structure and the sweetest most velvety tannins. Amazing fruit concentration. What a finish. What complexity. Just stunning. Super young but super incredible. 18 is the best vintage of Riehen I’ve ever tasted. As it airs the fruit comes more Into focus on the palate and the nose. What clarity. Just a tiny hit of opulence and then unreal freshness, leanness and sweet fruit. Unreal juxtaposition. Nose has so much Burgundian sous bous now and really is in Clos Vougeot territory. Brilliant. An elite wine. As it airs the texture gets more sweet and voluptuous which really takes it to the next level. It seemed to be at t's best after 3 hours.This is very close to a 9.8 but not quite.
This will age 20+ years and probably shouldn't be touched till 2025. What a wine. This is to be buried in the cellar. It needs maybe 10 years or a 2-5 hour decant if one wants to try it young.
Up next I have what I hope is the Swiss version of Liaison. The 2018 Weingut Riehen “Cuvee Unique” for $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. It’s quite hard to find a reasonably priced Pinot Noir from Switzerland. Today is that day. I’ve cut my margins so it’s priced under $30. This is simply an extraordinary wine for the money and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s got stunningly fruit clarity and all the alpine character one could pine for. This is a new entry level wine for them and the 18 is the debut vintage. Like the Le Grand it is from the Basel-Stadt.
Beautiful nose of earthen scents, mid season cherry fruit, wild flowers, alpine grass and some sort of umami scents. Seems like it has more to give. And it really dramatically improved with air. Gorgeous brambly nose with cherries galore and earthy and spicy aromas. Raspberry and strawberry. Floral. Just a knockout.
Palate is fresh as a daisy with crazy energy and superb dark cherry fruit that really sticks to the palate. Palate with lots of air is elegant and ripe with wonderful fruit and stunning purity and clarity. Also a very meaty vibe. Awesome. Such freshness and cut.
Terrific finish that clamps down. Awesome. A new stunning value Pinot from Ziereisen’s Swiss project. Deep and ripe tannins and a lovey rusticity as well. Gorgeous minerals awash the finish along with loads of black cherry fruit. This is fantastic wine. Gets very chewy with air. But man the fruit here is extraordinary. Such clarity. Palate with lots of air is elegant and ripe with wonderful fruit and stunning purity and clarity. Also a very meaty vibe. Awesome. Such freshness and cut.
The Estate
My story with this estate started a few years ago. I was arranging samples from Ziereisen and they also sent me the Swiss wines (Jost & Ziereisen, now called Weingut Riehen). The 2015/2016 "Le Petit Rouge" was a wine that I got at least 7 emails from clients absolutely blown away by that wine. Then I kept asking Edel about the prices for the 2018 Swiss wines. It took 3 months but I finally got them in February and of course that means I had to instantly sell these two wines. These are wines that are so brilliant because they are Zieriesen making Grand Cru and 1er Cru Burgundy style wines in Swiss Mountain terroir in Basel-Stadt which is really an extension of Baden but it's still in Switzerland. It's an insane combo and the level of distinction here is hard to beat. They are incomparable. Today the Grand Cru Pinot of Weingut Zieriesen and the stunning debut of a new “Village Pinot.”
2018 Weingut Riehen Le Grand Pinot Noir - $91.99
($269.97 3-Pack) (VERY LIMITED)
2018 Weingut Riehen l'Unique Pinot Noir - $31.99
($119.96 4-Pack) (VERY LIMITED)
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