- Transcendant
- By Far His Best Vintage
- Combine His Fascinating Style with That Extra Kick of Density
- They Still Have the Geekiness - But Deliciously Geeky in 2018
- A Must Try Vintage for Riesling Lovers
2018 Schätzel Hipping Riesling
- His Top, non-Auction Wine GG
- Unnervingly Brilliant
- From an Almost Mosel-like Steep Vineyard: Magic Rieslings
- Nose: Crystalline purity Like a Mountain Stream
- Almost Comes Across as a Riesling Champagne
- Palate: Ridiculously Intense White Peaches, Ripe Pink Grapefruit, Intense Salty Extract
- Extraordinary Power, Concentration and Complexity
- Electric, But Zen-Like Serenity
- A Wine of Great Emotion
2018 Schätzel Niersteiner Riesling
- Extra Weight and Heft in 2018
- Exquisitely Detailed and Delicious
- More Like a Baby GG this Year
- Haunting but also Holding Back a Lot
- Ripe Complex Nose: Apricot, Yellow Plum, Mineral, Plum Skin, Flowers and Herbs
- Super Expressive
- Palate: Slamming - an Insane Amount of Material
- Terrific Texture and Crunch
I had my Kai Schätzel samples sent to my apartment this year. I actually can taste the wines in a more relaxed setting and multiple times a day over a few days. I study the wines like someone cramming for finals. It's important to track the wines evolution. One hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours, 24 hour and so on are important moments in an opened bottle's life. Kai Schätzel's wines are a force of nature and Kai himself is also a force of nature. His will to keep evolving and pushing for higher quality in his very specific style is admirable and I've been tasting and selling these wines since the 2012 vintage and I can say without a doubt that Kai has taken a leap in 2018. The wines are transcendent. I use that word for a reason.
Transcendent means "beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience." It
Yes I know it's heavy but I studied Kai's18s and all of the above rings true. The wines just took me to a place. It was shocking how great they all were. I will happily offer all 6 wines Kai sent me over the next year. 2018 in the Rheinhessen is just so so special. There is a serenity to these wines that makes you have a zen almost meditative experience. Almost even out of body. For the Hipping GG as soon as I poured out a glass I called my partner and started raving like a lunatic how stunning the wine was.
Kai's style is low alcohol, huge acidity, massive terroir footprint, super intense and ageworthy. They have perfect ripeness and err on the side of more nuanced than more ripe which is why they are so in my wheelhouse. In 2018 the wines are just so elegant and so intense and with a purity that is some of the best I've ever tasted. Just mother's milk.
If there is one director that the wines of Kai Schätzel remind me of it is David Lynch. For some reason I think of Twin Peaks when I open Kai's wines. I get the same giddiness in my stomach of butterflies every time I open his wines. The fans of Schätzel are as fanatical as the biggest Twin Peaks fan out there. I never know what I will get when I open a wine of Kai Schätzel, but one thing I do know is it will be profound and enjoyable in a way that only his wines can be. There is a crystalline purity to these wines from the bottom most basic one to the top auction GG's. Just as David Lynch has a style (you know when you are watching Lynch), Schätzel has a style. It is dazzling crystalline beauty, low alcohol and the structure to age decades. Along with Martin Müllen in the Mosel they are the most distinctive Rieslings I sell. Kai, like David Lynch is a genius, and he is dedicated to his art unlike anyone I've ever seen but he is also pushing boundaries like no one I've ever seen before in Germany. He makes beer, pettilant natural and Gamay. He can't keep his fervent mind occupied with just producing world class Rieslings. It's always about moving the conversation forward. Today will be the first 2018 GG offering of Kai Schätzel's top non auction GG. The top GG, Pettenthal, will only go to auction. He also sells magnums of Pettenthal Kabinett at auction. Kai does things his own way. Opening any of his GG's will take you on a journey like Twin Peaks. The wines, when young, can be accessible with major decants but these wines have decades of life ahead of them and age is the greatest friend to these. Possibly 30 years for 2018 Hipping.
First, I have the big boy, the wine that is making waves in the German Grosses Gewachs community, the 2018 Schätzel Hipping Riesling for $69.99 each on a 3-pack. Hipping is a very steep vineyard. Almost Mosel like steepness. Mostly red clay and red shale the Rieslings from this vineyard are magic. Just magic and I am thrilled to be able to offer one. Keller and Kuhling-Gillot makes them as well and they are rare as hen's teeth.
The Nose. As soon as you smell it it almost comes across as a Riesling Champagne. This wine is bonkers in 2018 and truly one of the best GG's I have ever sold at Fass Selections. Just a beautiful wine that is vibrating on its own plane. Stunningly floral nose. Citrus and flowers. Heavenly. Confectionary sugar. Elite layering and ethereal quality. Just stunning. So delicate and layered and almost poignant. Amazing deep minerality that is so primal, almost of a different time. So special. Citrus, lime, crushed rocks, river stream. So many aromas. Such an array. One of the greatest noses on a young Riesling ever.
The palate is a ridiculously intense juicy explosion of white peaches, sweet/ripe pink grapefruit, and a delicious enveloping intense salty extract. It is electric on the palate like Zeus throwing downs a lighting bolt on the palate. God is this good. Good enough for Zeus. Insanely juicy and complex with just electric acidity and minerality. Like a cloud with so many flavors and layers but oh so delicate. My god this is stunning. Superb concentration and power with a wow level of minerality and freshness off the charts. Staggeringly pure. Deep mid palate and an insane wonderful playful finish. So good. Elite. Stunning purity and dissipation on the finish Epically long and well paced finish with insane levels of energy, lime sweet tart, huge minerals and insane structure. One of those wines that when you think the wine is finished it keeps going and opening up new worlds you never knew existed. It's a wine that is hard to get a handle on likely due to its youth but also so fun in trying to get a handle on. There are waves and layers and what an unreal wall of flavor. It's amazingly mineral and so serene at the same time. This needs 5 years and will age gracefully for 15-18. An accomplishment.
The 2018 Schätzel Niersteiner Riesling for $32.99 a bottle on a 4-pack is terrific. It is like a super pumped up Nierstein ReinSchiefer which used to be this bottling. It's so fine. So filigreed. So exquisitely detailed and delicious. Yet it has extra weight and heft in 2018. It's more like a baby GG this year than anyone I've tasted. It is just amazingly juicy and precise and yet so delicate. Refreshing. That is one the keys to Kai's style. The wines are so refreshing they go so quickly. So complex. So beautiful. Haunting but also holding back a lot. This wine is brilliant. The 2018 is by far the best one yet. This bottling is fun young but in 5 years it will be ideal. 14 is stunning now. And it just started to stun. But I recommend drinking one young and following it over a few days.
Ripe complex nose of apricot, yellow plum, mineral, plum skin, flowers and herbs. Immediately it's just so complex. That's on pop and pour. And super expressive. It's really incredible how flavorful this wine is and the sheer palate impact. Lovely limestone character. High toned nose. Jumps out at you.
Palate is just slamming. There is an insane amount of material on the palate. At 10.5% alcohol this is a marvel. Incredible balance between minerality and barely sweet (ripe) fruit. So delicate, lacey and complex. Just delightful. Lithe structure suggests 10-12 years of aging. Amazing finish. Best Schätzel Ortsweine yet.
On day 2 even better. Superb nose of lime and limestone. Gorgeous. Really compelling. So precise, heavenly and detailed. Palate is a mineral bath with sweet tart lime lemon fruit. Such texture and crunch. Wow. Stunning. Sick. The fruit is a cooling kind and seems almost Mosel-like with green apple, passion fruit, tangelo, and succulent minerality. It's explodes with so much flavor. The wine is so juicy and layered with unreal finesse. Amazingly long finish. This wine I hope will tell you all what I already know, that Kai Schätzel is a superstar winemaker. This is incredible and will easily last 15+ years. Remarkable for a wine at this price.
A Note About Schätzel and aging.
I have to taste these wines young because I need to assess if they are good and write about them. I always recommend packs based on drinking one young. While these are fun to drink young I think these, more than any other Rieslings I sell benefit the most from age. These are truly for the long haul and once ages they will be neat the top of the heap of Rheinhessen wines.
2018 Schätzel Hipping Riesling Grosses Gewachs - $71.99
($209.97 3-pack) (*Including Tariff of $8.44)
2018 Schätzel Nierstein Riesling - $34.99 ($131.96 3-pack)
(*Including Tariff of $3.27)
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