Not a problem anymore, Stuart, as Fass Selections saves the day (to be truthful I love the wines and planned on offering the wines before I heard that Stuart liked them). Stuart knows, of course, the brilliance of Andi Schneider's startlingly pure and crystalline Rieslings.
He is on Stuart's latest list of the top 111 young winemakers in Germany. Andi Schneider is in the Nahe, which has three of the top winemakers in Germany (Dönnhoff, Schäfer- Fröhlich and Emrich-Schönleber). He is making, simply put, some of the most electric, pure, crystalline dry Rieslings in Germany and they are stellar values as he is still young and relatively unknown. Another wine you will taste this spring and look up how much you got it for and just shake your shoulders. These are wines of great balance and restraint - Andi resists the temptation to allow the Nahe's warm climate to overfruit his wines.
The first wine is the 2013 K.H. Schneider Riesling Schlossbockelheimer "Vulkanstein;" a miraculous wine for as little as $21.99 on the 4-pack. This a village wine and is a sin it is so inexpensive. Andi excels at making Rieslings at the low end of his price-points, not that takes anything away from his higher priced wines, his entry level wines are, and I know I overuse this word, just stunning. You cannot believe all that complexity, minerality and svelte fruit can be stuffed into one bottle of wine. But Andi does it. This is from vineyards that have a high incidence of volcanic rock thus named "Vulkanstein." There are very pure yellow fruits on the nose that really defines what a cool climate dry Riesling should smell like. On the palate, there are cooling yellow fruits intermingled with dynamite and aggressive minerality. It is juicy and powerful with nothing exaggerated. Simply put it is balanced like a yin-yang symbol. The finish is salty and smokey at the same time and keeps you coming back for more. The acid runs through it like a laser. Simply put, this is as exciting as a Riesling I as I have tasted from the Nahe since back in 2006 when I tasted Tim Frohlich's brilliant dry wines. Do not miss this. Andi also ferments spontaneously like Tim Frohlich. They are also fermented in old wood barrels.
"Andi´s wines appear very self-confident. His single vineyard wines are new Nahe classics in a high elegant style such as the Halenberg of Emrich Schönleber or the Pittermännchen of Diel." - Stuart Piggott
"If Andi will not become a Top Winemaker I will be an idiot. I have tasted a big range of his dry and sweet Rieslings from the yet unknown top vineyard sites Domberg and Marbach. Here you got slim but expressive, really mineral wines for a friendly price value." - Stuart Piggott
Next up is a very limited cuvee called the 2013 Domberg, which can be had for as little as $29.99 on a 4-pack. This is a single-vineyard wine and would be a GG if he was in the VDP; it is one of Andi's top Rieslings. Nose is all cut grass and smoke. There are hints of fresh fruit but the Domberg shows through strong. That minerality, even with air, comes through more and more. The palate is an exercise in precision and there is much more clear-cut Riesling fruit apparent than on the nose. There is also beautiful minerality that really is the star of this wine. The length is very impressive and the mineral persistence makes this wine just so special. This is not a fruit bomb Riesling but lithe, lacey, expressive and sparse. In a word wonderful and in another word - - - LIMITED.
Andi is the 3rd generation of his family to make wine and he is based in the Bad Sobernheim and Schlossböckelheim area. Andi only makes Riesling, and a range from dry to sweet, as Riesling and its different expressions on different soils, is why he and his family have been doing this for 3 generations. In the Nahe you have so many different soil types next to each other this is the perfect place to grow Riesling in all these different soils. 2007 was Andi's first vintage in charge after he finished his wine studies.
2013 K.H. Schneider Riesling "Domberg" - $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack) (Very Limited)
2013 K.H. Schneider Schlossbockelheim Riesling "Vulkanstein"- $23.99
($87.96 4-pack)
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