He Made Me An Offer I Couldn't Refuse: Under $20 for Two Amazing Mosel Dry Wines: One from the Legendary Juffer

The Protege of One of the Dry Wine Masters ofthe Mosel: The First Winemaker from the Brilliant Stefan Steinmetz's "Coaching Tree" 

Stefan Steinmetz, of the winery Gunther Steinmetz is one of the great young winemakers in Germany.

 I've sold boatloads of his wines and he has a huge following, particularly in New York.  He also has the best palette for wine I have encountered in Germany.  So when Stefan Steinmetz says, I have a friend who is making brilliant Mosel Riesling my ears perk up, and I listen. On my most recent trip to Germany, Stefan's close friend and protege, Christophe Licht, came over with some samples and we had a tasting.The wines were remarkable. They are made in a wonderful pristine laser-like style with oodles of precise fruit and Mosel slate minerality. in 2013 Christophe spontaneously fermented all his wines at Stefan's urging and  it his best vintage ever They are achingly beautiful and have incredible aromas.

Christophe, like most great young winemakers, learned winemaking first and marketing second so he is still building his retail presence as he sells wines to Germans who stop by the winery (I am the only retailer I can see that offers his wines).  I told him I had a reasonably full slate of Mosel wines but after I drank the wines and he told me the prices, I couldn't say no.  The values are that good for such beautiful Rieslings that I had to squeeze them in to the offer schedule. These are wines that I would normally sell for $25 ($35 for standard three tier retail) that are almost half off normal retail prices.

The first wine is the 2013 Licht-Stadfield Juffer Riesling Spatlese Trocken which can be had for as little as $19.99 a 4-pack. This is new generation Mosel Trocken. Pure, clean and elegant with crunchy minerality. Beautiful classic lime and apple fruit with long persistence on the beautiful and refined finish. Yeah - this is a Juffer spatlese trocken for under $20.  Usually this is what you pay for an estate bottle of wine or a "branded" bottle through 3-Tiers. For 19.99 it is unheard to find Spatlese Trocken. Man, sometimes I love Fass Selections sometim.es

The second wine today is the 2013 Licht Stadfield Klostergarten Riesling Feinherb
for as little as 17.99 on the 4-pack. It is not labelled Trocken because it finished spontaneously fermenting with 23 grams of sugar but it has 8.5 grams of acid so it is very dry tasting. Very dry tasting with great energy and minerality and so clean and so precise. The finesse is stunning as is the palate presence.  This is a ridiculous value. You only usually find branded 500,000 bottle production Riesling at this price point. You don't find anything of this beauty like this. No way. One of the great steals of the year.

Christophe took over from his father like Stefan did and has made the wines even better. 2013 he describes as a classic Mosel vintage with distinctive acidity and fine Mosel fruit. 2013 is the first vintage he completely spontaneously fermented all his wines, as his buddy Stefan, convinced him to. I tasted the 12's and they were good and had potential but they were not spontaneously fermented and seemed to lack a bit of energy and it seemed like a layer had been stripped away. But the 13's that is another story all together. Sometimes it takes just a little nudge from a master to take the wines from really good to exceptional.  These are one of my best finds and only the 3rd Mosel grower in my portfolio after Muellen and Caspari. And just as distinctive as the other two.

These wines will arrive in the late Fall and be shipped in the winter or spring, depending on the weather.

2013 Licht-Stadfield Klostergarten Riesling - $19.99 ($71.96 4-pack)

2013 Licht-Stadfield Juffer Riesling Spatlese Trocken - $21.99 

($79.96 4-pack)