Probstey "Grand Cru"
- Some of the Best Pinot Noirs I've Had from Anywhere in Germany
- Incredibly Hedonistic
- Deep Cherry Fruit with Incredible Detail
- Like a German Corton
- Full & Layered Aromatic Spectrum
- Huge Concentration & Power/Built To Age
- Like a Pinot Noir Sweet Tart - Limestone Cherry Flavor
- $49.99 for Pinot This Level of Quality Is Unheard of
- 95 Points from Pigott for 2016 (He Retired from Reviewing)
2017 Village Saulheimer Kalkstein
- Please Do Not Sleep on This Wine (Sick Value Under $28)
- Young Grapes from Grand Cru Sites
- Nose: Wide Open with Huge Thrilling Levels of Fruit.
- Big berries and Cherries
- Tons of Perfumed Intensity
- The Power and Balance of the Grand Crus
- 94 Points from Pigott for 2016 - INSANE QPR (He Retired from Reviewing)
"A handful of producers are making serious wines from this grape (Spätburgunder), but in our tastings only Thörle blew our minds." Stuart Pigott on the 2015 Thorle Spatburgunders
"Even Thörle shines more brightly with Spätburgunder, aka pinot noir; its 2016s are the best to date for the variety there."Stuart Pigott on the 2016 Thorle Spatburgunders
"Thörle is the BEST producer of Spätburgunder in the Rheinhessen behind Keller and around 1/10th of the price and the brothers have crushed 2017- Lyle Fass
Stuart is a Brit who's been around for a while and has a big following in Europe and a smaller following here in the States. He's been living in Germany on and off for 25 years and he and I have
been tasting the same wineries for a decade or more. He's one of the top German wine critics in the world. His scores and writeups of 16/17 are added to give another perspective. Sadly he longer reviews wines.
Thorle is on the Cusp of Superstardom
We all know what happened with Martin Müllen when he got the huge Stephan Reinhardtscores. My wonderful little stash of old Riesling that I was planning to sell over a decade disappeared. And the new stuff is selling out fast. And the same thing is going to happen to the Thörle Brothers. The wines are that great. Elite great.
Imagine if you will if you were a lover of Burgundy in the late 60s and early 70s. The world was basically your oyster. Everyone else in the market was going gaga over the only wine that mattered to them, which was Bordeaux. You stocked up on Raveneau, Roumier, Leroy, Rousseau, Coche-Drury, Dujac, Fourrier... the list goes on. All at ridiculously low prices. And you're still drinking the last of them today and laughing. Well, that opportunity is repeating itself today in Germany. Germany has always had the terroir. It just took a while for the producers to figure out how to make great wine on it. A few dozen of them have and they are there for the picking as few other importers are paying attention.
The 2017 Vintage
Thörle's 17s are the greatest Pinot Noirs from this young estate I've tasted so far. Monuments to how brilliant 17 was in the Rheinhessen for Pinot Noir. This is like buying Mugneret-Gibourg before they were popular amongst the cool kids. The Thörle 2017 Grand Cru Pinots are just astonishing. Even better than the stunning 2015s but also stylistically similar. These are among the best Pinot Noirs I've ever tasted from anywhere in Germany. These 2017s may be the last email before they go on allocation lockdown. They make so little and the quality is off the charts. If 2013 was the breakout vintages for Möbitz and E and M, 2015 was the breakout vintage for Thörle brothers and now 2017 shows they are not resting on their laurels and moving the conversation even more forward. They slayed all the Pinot Noir and made perhaps the most transparent, luscious and deeply fruited yet nimble, refined and deep 17s I've tasted yet. These are breathtaking wines not to be missed. The 17s are unreal now, just like their Riesling counterparts.
So please read this carefully and order as much Thorle as you want while you can.
We are starting with the first big boy, the 2017 Thörle Probstey Spatburgunder for $49.99 a bottle on the 4-pack. I've now tasted this wine in 13-17 and the 16 and 17 are on a different level. An elite level. They have upped their game and the Probstey shows just prodigious concentration and depth and is easily on the same level as the Hölle now.
The Vineyard. Probstey is one of their two "Grand Cru" sites and drinks well earlier but still has the ability to age and should be aged for 10-15 years. But Probstey is so seductive young. Probstey is the more windy and is a south facing site with sandy and limestone soil. It's the warmer of the two Grand Cru sites but also has a knack for snappy acids allied with the richness that comes from the warmer site.
The 17 is just nuts and is so frigging hedonistic but in the Fassiest way possible with unreal refinement.
The nose is heavenly. Stunning perfume. Wow. Raspberry, deep blackberry, black cherry, but even though a very red fruit vibe. Hugely floral and so expressive. Amazing mineral soil tones. Wafting. Floral. A treat to smell. Amazing purity to the fruit. High quality here. The deep cherry fruit is constantly changing between dark and light cherries. So detailed and vivid. Oolong tea, minerals and subtle spices add to the aromatic lightshow. The palate is way better now than the nose but age does make it so perfumed and symphonic. Aromas need a few years to shift into high gear at Thörle I find. Even Stuart says that in his note for former vintages.
The palate is just incredible. So concentrated with perfect tiny berry super high quality fruit. It just explodes and is so detailed. It's the earthiest, sweetest most perfumed Pinot fruit you can imagine. All balanced by perfect lip-smacking acidity. Stunning palate of great depth, energy and density. Precision is really compelling. Beautiful sweetness and so linear. Straight. Really long, intense and very flavorful finish. Like the best sweet tart ever. Really compelling character. Unreal concentration and power but so beautiful. This is super profound. Wow. Amazing quality tannins and just ridiculous fruit. What a finish. These are the results you get from perfectly healthy, ripe Pinot Noir fruit, which Christophe Thörle so eloquently stated as we tasted this wine. It has an opulent texture like only 17 can bring while remaining mind-numbingly fresh and transparent with elegant and refinement at levels yet before undiscovered with just prodigious concentration and succulence that is bonkers. . This is a beautiful wine. It can be drunk now but I think will benefit greatly from 5-10 years in the cellar. My notes trail off with...."sick, sick, sick." It is indeed sick.
"Still quite closed on the nose, because this has just been bottled. However, on the palate there's a sensational harmony of fine-grained tannins and perfectly ripe fruit, yet the wine has just 12.5 per cent alcohol. Great, chalky dry finish." 95 pts Stuart Piggot (2016 Vintage)
Up next I've got a brilliant example of a category of wine that offers such superb value. That is the Pinot Noir version of a Riesling Spatlese Trocken. Aka Ortsweine/Village wines. Today I've got one that I did not plan to offer but it was so good I had to offer it. The 2017 Thörle Saulheimer Spatburgunder Kalkstein can be had today for $27.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. Back up the truck on this as this is a nutso bargain. I spent nearly 15 minutes on this wine.
The Wine. This is in the same genre as Juwel Alsheim Spätburgunder/E&M Liason and Ziereisen "Schulen." Insane value Ortsweine that you would think is twice the price. This is from young vines in their two Grand Cru sites of Hölle and Probstey. It has that Grand Cru presence if not quite the finesse and in 2017. It is crazy concentrated and super deep. I've had many vintages of this wine and this wine is the perfect candidate for short term aging which transforms this. Having a 15/16 really shows that as the 15 was wide open and stunningly better than when I had it two years ago while the 16 needed 45 minutes and showed much better on day 2.
The nose is wide open with huge thrilling levels of fruit. Big berries and cherries with tons of perfumed intensity. Bright and deep raspberry and black raspberry along with a complex citrusy note. Loads of woodsy aromas, woodland berry, spice and a big mineral element but is in the background as the fruit is popping on the nose Succulent and so juicy with enormous lift and freshness. Amazingly elegant tannins and perfectly executed ripeness and purity. Terrific inner mouth perfume.
Palate is hauntingly great. Amazing supple and elegant mouthfeel but with a brilliant red cherry, cranberry, pure and grippy fruitset. Also a hit of citrus. You don't get that in Burgundy. And it's really distinctive but adds so much. Velvety and ripe tannins that are so pure and fresh and pump the fruit and taper off. Hit of spice as well on the finish is truly great and present 2017 acidity. What a great showing. You can't believe how inexpensive this wine is vis a vis what it delivers on the palate. It's so concentrated and deep from the brilliance of 2017 yet has sizzling acids and freshness. This will be a legend just as Liason and Juwel were at similar pricepoints. E-mail me about case pricing (or maybe even palette pricing :-). I can go a tiny bit lower. Still though. 94 points, $28???
"This has a ravishing black cherry note with hints of leather and smoke. For a pinot noir in this price category, there's great concentration, polished tannins and a long, complex finish. Drink or hold." 94 pts Stuart Piggot (2016 vintage)
2017 Thorle Probstey Spatburgunder - $51.99 ($199.96 4-Pack) (VERY LIMITED) (Included Tariff $5.59*)
2017 Thorle Saulheimer Kalkstein Spatburgunder - $29.99 ($111.96 4-Pack) (VERY LIMITED) (Included Tariff $2.73)*
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