2012 Weingut von Winning, Riesling Trocken, Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad, Deidesheim, Pfalz Germany.
With all the great new releases from 2015 and 2016 vintages sometimes we forget to focus on wines that are on the shelves now and may have been forgotten, but that deserve your attention, like this gorgeous and layered 2012 von Winning dry Riesling that is drinking beautifully and with an almost white Burgundy like grace and purity, while unique in giving varietal and terroir character. This is from a Cru site set on sandy loam, red sandstone, limestone soils that is organic, the wine was formed from native yeast and gentile vinification, everything is gravity flow, so there is no pumping, everything on the dry wines at von Winning is done with elegance in mind and with an ode to white Burgundy with winegrower Stephan Attman and team crafting wines of individual beauty. This bottling is in almost every essence a GG, and is a Grosse Lage (Grand Cru) site, but this Reiterpfad Trocken is not so labeled, so while it is made the same way and has the pedigree, though without as much of French oak influence of the top cuvees, this wine is the real deal and sleeper in von Winning’s lineup, with this wonderful vintage driven 2012 wine. Coming out of it’s youthful shell, this Riesling still has electric like energy and power along with it’s more apparent depth and richness, it is gaining it’s true form and in the glass it is a thrilling wine with sexy layers of crisp fruit, mineral tones, delicately seductive floral notes and an impressive extract, width and textual expansion, this is a wine of palate impact and substance, but with glorious transparency. There is an array of lime, green apple, quince, lemon curd, apricot and creamy tangerine fruits, a dusting of chalk, wet stone, peach pit, sweet basil, faint spices and fine saline that all make this a stunner and a great wine for the price, and with air this wine gathers mouth feel hints of white rose petals, hazelnut and briny elements highlighting this wine’s vigorously dry and balanced vibrancy, absolutely everything you’d want and more rivaling many a Premier Cru Chablis and making for an exotic Riesling experience, and it’s a wine that will age another decade with ease.
($39 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive
