One of the Best Rieslings that I Have Ever Sold

2018 in Germany
 - One of the All Time Great Vintages
 - Two Winemakers Have Compared it to the Legendary 1959
 - Similar to 2014 White Burgundy and 2008 Champagne

Battenfeld Spanier
 - One of the Top 5 Estates in Germany
 - Has Won Every Award Imaginable
 - Always Consistently Great 
- In Great Vintages, They Are Transcendent
 - In 2018 There Was Another Quality Leap, I Think, Or The Vintage Is That Transcendent. 

2018 Battenfeld-Spanier Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs
 - One of the Best Noses on a Grand Cru Riesling That I sell
 - So Harmonic and Balanced, it Almost Boggles the Mind
 - Stupifying Complexity
 - Maybe The Most Elegant Wine of The Rheinhessen in 2018
 - Amazing Texture and Vivid, Precise Flavors
 - A Top, Top Flight Wine for Under $60- Direct from the Estate
 - 96 Points Stuart Piggot for 2017. This Is Much Better

2018 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling Trocken 
 - At $18.99 on a Case Purchase, Maybe Our Best White Value of the Year
  -The Only Gutswein I Sell - It's That Good
 - Minerality and Acidity But Great Fruit
 - Vivid Apricot and Ripe Peach Skins
 - Buy As Much As You Can Store
 - 92 Points, Stuart Piggot for 2017. This is Another Level

I sometimes feel like Battenfeld Spanier is our Taj Mahal.  People always say that the Taj Mahal is very famous but gets little attention from Indians.  Similarly, Battenfeld Spanier has been with us for 6+ years. I sometimes feel that they don't get as much love as they should. This is one of the top estates in Germany and while the wines certainly sell very well, as good as they are (and as inexpensive as they are), I always feel that they are under bought. And in 17 and now 18 they have just gotten even better. Another level. Again. It's up and up and up. Always improving. Obsessively finding ways to improve quality and it really shows. The attention to detail that I recognize that goes into their work is remarkable.

2018 Germany 
I'm just going to come out and say it. 2018 is a historical vintage and two famous winemakers have

compared it to 1959, which is one of the all time great vintages. One of those is our own H.O. Spanier. The other was Hanno Zilliken. Someone I trust implicitly said it's exactly like 2014 White Burgundy. The acidity in 2018 German Riesling and more specifically Rheinhessen Riesling announces itself when it walks in a room. We might have the most thunderous acid in the Rheinhessen since 2004/2008/2010. Yet there is a juxtaposition of unreal levels of superb opulence with that insane acidity Chiseled marble in a way. This is no joke acid yet it is needed to cut through the stunningly pure opulence. So all my acid heads can I get a hell yeah? But also my fans of Baroque wines will love these to. It's the best  of both worlds. There is a flavor intensity to the top 18s that is undeniable. The PH levels are also low and the acids are higher in 18 than 17 and the perception by the taster is as well more tuned to the higher acid due to the lower PH. There is glorious ripeness, opulence and huge amounts of dry extract and density for days. The wines are amazing and the winemakers are super giddy.

Battenfeld 2018s
Wow. Battenfeld 18 is incredible. Stunning levels of complexity and flavor intensity like nothing else across all the wines I've tasted. Amazing depth here that is a another level. 18 seems like a breakthrough vintage here or the quality of 2018 has lifted the wines to a previous unforeseen quality level. This is a higher level than 15/16/17 which was the previous triad of breakthroughs. We will see what 19/20 bring in terms of quality but I reckon those will be insane as well as H.O. Is always tinkering and searching for ways to make higher quality wines. Why we love him.

The Wines
The first wine is the 2018 Battenfeld Spanier Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg Grosses Gewachs for $59.99 a bottle on a 4 pack purchase.  This is easily one of the best rieslings that I have ever sold.

The Nose  Truly one of the best noses on a Grand Cru Riesling that I sell. This is STUNNING. Limestone, superb herbal aromas, citrus pith, apricot, peach skin, suggestion of fresh ginger, an opulence you can almost taste, lanolin, almost nutty and stunningly bright. Honey, creamy, tangelo, opulent, herbal, mineral, bitter caramel, nougat, vanilla, just insane. Lime as well. Limestone as well. Smells like you just arrived at the beach. Fresh grass, some light sponti aromas. This is the best young nose of a Frauenberg that I've ever smelled. Once can get lost in it. Just stunning.

The palate is insanely fresh with terrific minerality that  assaults your palate but in a playful way. It is so ultra refined and so ultra pure as in 16 they turned a corner and have continued on this path of "roundness and refinement "and have upped the refinement even more in 2018. Where Am Schwarzen en Hergott is powerful, this wine, while not bashful, is so harmonic and balanced, it almost boggles the mind.  Palate is immaculate. Opulent and super chiseled. The juxtaposition on these Battenfeld 18s is remarkable. Juicy and complex with just amazing depth, energy and precision. So long, ethereal and opulent and juicy. It sizzles on the finish. Amazing mouthfeel and honeyed yet so dry and fresh. This is a beast but an elegant and flavorful beast. Young but not inaccessible but will get better over 10-12 years. It truly takes over your mouth with waves of vivid, opulent citrus and apricot fruit yet is balanced by what I called in my notes, "an oyster." It is a classic characteristic of this bottling and terroir. Riesling on limestone gives a very unique minerality not seen in other areas of Germany with more slate or sandstone. It is brighter and more powerful. That is the vibrating minerality that is so ever present in this wine. It tickles your palate is the best way to describe that unique Frauenberg minerality. It is ridiculously complex and so pretty. So elegant and unreal complexity off the bat that only gains every 15 minutes. The finish is a mile long. It's ultra long. Wow. Huge citrus power and depth. Intense and deep structure, and an attractive and compelling opulence with amazing delineation and like a staccato finish that dissipates so beautifully, like a sunset going down over a distant horizon yet it's vivid till the last second. 

The finish is like the best, most saline, sweetest, balanced oyster you have ever had with amazing hints of nougat, caramel and herbs. It's so distinctive that I kept going back and back to it. You want this in your mouth. The texture and vivid precise flavors are like clouds passing through on your palate due to the incredible finesse. Brilliant wine. There is also great power here but it is deceptively powerful because of how it vibrates and how elegant it is. This and Hergott have risen above Kirchenstuck for now. It is very evident. This is on some Montrachet level juju. 2018 is a vintage with terrific fruit definition, opulence, chiseledness, mineral force and clarity, forceful present transparency (vineyard expression) nuance and KILLER acids.  Make no mistake, the power, balance and concentration in this wine are equal to anything you will get in Grand Cru white Burgundy. I am and will continue to be befuddled this wine is $59.99 a bottle. Smells like you just arrived at the beach. Fresh grass, some light sponti aromas only add to the allure. This is a 99 point Riesling in my book.

The next wine is one of the more incredible wines we sell. There is a bit of a backstory to tell. Battenfeld Spanier used to make two Gutsweine bottlings. A regular Riesling Trocken and then something called Riesling Prime which was at a level between Ortsweine (Moelsheim and Hohen-Sulzen). It was a super Gutsweine per se but that is no longer now due to the VDP being anal and annoying and it's now combined into Riesling Trocken and the 2018 Battenfeld Spanier Riesling Trocken is a silly great wine for $20.99 a bottle and $18.99 a bottle on a case.

Gorgeous nose. Clean, mineral, honeyed, tangelo, apricot. Lovely fruit for Gutswein. Really great depth as well for Gutswein.


Palate has terrific juiciness and great depth. Terrific texture and freshness with hints of honey, a hint of caramel and a lovely herbal streak. This is absolutely brilliant for what it is. Best version of this I have ever had. Exceptional length.  Amazing distinctiveness. Has that herbal/savory/honeyed character that many 2018 Battenfelds show. This wine has what all the other estate wines I don't offer has, it has fruit. Most of these estate wines have an intense mineral drive and no fruit and I believe they are good wines but only for geeks, even though they are cheap. Not only does it have glorious and refined fruit but also length, persistence and a sense of refinement. Think of this like the Roulot Bourgogne Blanc or the Dugat-Py Bourgogne Rouge Cuvee Halinard. Transcendent wines that are limited by their appellation names. The wine is so juicy, so persistent and has a sense of finesse and refinement and the perfect balance between minerals and fruit. The fruits are vivid apricot and ripe peach skins and really stay with you. It's so lovely and fresh with no shortage of minerals and fruit. It is as pure and as enjoyable as any wine I've tasted in Germany and represents outrageous value.

2018 Battenfeld-Spanier Frauenberg Riesling Grosses Gewachs - $61.99 ($239.96 4-pack) (*Including Tariff of $7.56)

2018 Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling Trocken - $22.99 ($83.96 4-pack, $$227.88 12 bottle case {$17.99}) (*Including Tariff of $1.43)