2016 Weingut Goldatzel, Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Geisenheimer Kläuserweg, Rheingau Germany.
One of the surprises in the Terry Theise lineup at Skurnik’s SF tasting was the thoughtful and austere laser sharp Riesling offering from Johannes Gross, these are a subtle set of wines that need a few tastes to truly appraise their inner beauty and beautiful form. It was a pleasure to taste with Johannes and fully experience his wines, I was thrilled especially with his dry wines that showed an electric sense of excitement with elegant structures and vibrant fruit, in particular I was personally intrigued by Goldatzel’s Geisenheimer Trockens, these were some of the best I’ve tried from this part of the Rheingau and reminded me somewhat of Kunstler, which is high praise! The 2016 Geisenheimer Kläuserweg Spatlese Trocken is a brilliant effort with a wonderful sense of terroir, fine detail and nervy tension showing a light perfume, saline and a never ending force of citrus along with spice and lovely cool mineral tones. Working without a strict dogma Gross uses mostly organic practices and ferments in most cases with native yeasts, but always allowing an approach for each wine, being flexible to change to it’s own needs, which seems practical for this small estate winery to craft unique individual wines. The Geisenheim site is close to the Rhein and sits on loam, marl and clay, and this wine highlights it’s place nicely with traces of earthiness and crystalline transparency, with this 2016 giving fresh verve and layers of lemon/lime, tangy peach/stone fruit, green apple and lingering chalky wet stone. There’s solid extract and the must weight delivers a sense of body and depth in this zesty young dry Riesling, but as mentioned, you’ll want to give this wine time to reveal it’s true nature, it’s a slow and teasing seduction, give it time and reap the rewards, impressive.
($28 Est.) 92+ Points, grapelive
