The Winner of the 2013 AND 2014 Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) Berlin Cups Is Back - Do Not Miss This Offer.

Most of you know the German wine and food blogger, Martin Zwick and his famousblind tastings of the top wines in Germany.  The Rings Brothers won the 2013 and the 2014 Berlin Cups (scored by top German wine professionals) and are incredibly popular in Germany.  Justifiably so as the wines are absolutely fantastic.  German Pinot Noirs are a hot new category especially after the famous 2011 London Tasting chronicled by famed critic Jancis Robinson where the Germans held their own against their counterparts in Burgundy.

I'm building a small group of the best Pinot Noir producers in Germany.  Many of you have enjoyed the wines of Enderle & Moll and Henrik Möbitz.  If you haven't already, you really need to try Rings (please try the Riesling as well - it can get overlooked because the Pinots are so good but it's also terrific).

The Pinot I'm offering is the 2013 Freinsheim Spatburgunder, which can be had for $29.99 per bottle on a 4-pack is an absolute freak show of a wine from a very freaky vintage. Yields had the be kept low, like Leroy-low, to make good wine. Rings already employs low yields as a philosophy, so they had draconian yields in 2013 and it resulted in an amazing vintage for this wine. It is darker than the 2012, but has all of that terrific silky, sweet berry fruit presented in such a pure, fruit-driven style with a delicious finish. It smells so good. The thing I love about the Rings' borothers wines is that they are exceptionally well balanced.  The background acidity is always there to keep the wine tasting fresh.  I had a bottle of the 2012 the other night and I could not believe how great it was. I kept getting emails and tagged on social media with this wine so I opened a bottle and it was even better than I remember. More depth and just so drinkable. Scary drinkable actually. The 2013 has a bit more heft and depth to it, but the acidity is nice and tensile and makes sure those tiny berry Pinot fruits of goodness pop in your mouth. This is a wine to load up on as 2013 is an exceptional but small vintage. You will not believe the quality of this wine.

I also have the 2014 Steinacker Riesling which can be had for $26.99 a bottle on a 4-pack, which is a fine follow up to the stellar 2013 version. I love Pfalz Riesling as there are so many styles. The style here is opulence with tension and 2014 has all that tension and more. Loads of nectarine and peach fruit with so much cleansing acidity it is like a waterfall on the palate. Terrific concentration and purity. Very airy and mineral nose with a great perfume after aeration. Punched way way above its weight class. Really love this bottom from them and something I always grab for more and more. Gets better and better over an hour.

As soon as I walked into Andreas Rings' winery in Freinsheim I knew I would like Andreas and his  wines. There were oceans of great bottles lining the walls. Rebholz, Rousseau, Roumier, etc.  My instincts were right; this is the new star in Germany and he can barely shave.  I found out about this winery because one of their Pinot Noirs was ranked the top Pinot in Germany by Martin Zwick's group of experts.  I always form my own opinion of any wine I taste but my props to Martin for discovering Rings.

I have never been this excited for an appointment in Germany, perhaps ever. The Rings brothers have taken the German wine world by storm with their profound bottlings of Spatburgunder and Riesling. It's almost as if they popped out of nowhere.  Freinsheim is great for Pinot Noir and Riesling and the brothers Rings have an adept hand at both grapes, especially at such a young age.   Andreas, who is in charge of the winemaking, at the tender age of 26, is a genius; if these are the wines he is making at 26, Germany needs to watch out what he can do at 36 or even 46. He will be an important winemaker for a very very long time and you are getting the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. The style of the wines is as big as Andreas' teddy bear-like personality. The Rieslings and Spatburgunders have incredible freshness, verve and depth. They are big, powerful and explosive wines that take no prisoners, which I find is typical Pfalz style; the Pfalz is not for wimps.