2018 Weingut Spreitzer, Riesling Trocken, Rosengarten, Grosses Gewächs, Rheingau Germany.
One of the wines of the vintage so far has to be the Spreitzer Rosengarten GG Riesling, this wonderfully aromatic and balanced dry white has incredible depth, complexity and tropical sex appeal. It was great to catch up with Andreas Spreitzer recently and taste through the stunning latest set of wines, as well as a magical 1934 Goldbeeren Auslese from the family’s well maintained private cellar, which was drinking wonderfully well. While the Spreitzer 2016, 2017 and 2018 wines, many cask samples, like this one, were were all gorgeous and the three vintages are all worthy, better than that in fact, each has its own charm and personality that makes them special, but that said, the 2018 vintage is an out of this world year and what I’ve tasted so far have been some of the best young wines I’ve ever had, and especially beautiful this Spreitzer Rosengarten Grosses Gewachs from their Oestrich Lenchen vineyard in the middle Rhein region. Spreitzer, founded in 1641, is one of the oldest family wineries in the Rheingau is not far from the Rhein villages of Hattenheim and Etville, where the Rhein river is at its widest point, it creates a lake effect and the terroir is unique here with less slate than just down the river in Rudesheim and the soils here vary with areas of loess, clay, shell limestone, gravel, a bit of slates, quartzite, iron-rich stones and sand, all of which forms the individual characteristics in Spreitzer’s offerings. Be sure to check out all of Spreitzer’s 2018 from their Estate Trocken bargain bottling to their Kabinett, Spatlese and special Alte Reben (old vine) Feinherb(s), which are outrageous values and of course their majestic Premier Cru and powerful Grand Crus.
The Rosengarten “GG” Grand Cru is set on mostly loess and loams with a touch of sand in a mix of soils that add to the exotic nature in this stand out dry Riesling and Spreitzer’s hard sustainable vineyard work shows in the exceptional purity and perfume here with layers of sweet pea, white violet, delicate mineral tones and a combination of orchard stone and citrus fruits including white peach, apricot, tangerine and lime in a medium full bodied wine with great extract and stony elements that adds Asian tea and spices, quince, Chablis like steeliness and saline notes. This is amazing stuff, with its pretty detailing and length, from Spreitzer, it should be released later this Summer or early Fall and will gain from extra bottle age and it has the potential to be a legendary wine, with air in the glass this transparent and pale Riesling shows its leesy opulence and brings out even more florals with the bouquet adding orange blossom and jasmine along with contrasting phenolic elements that show you there is a very serious underlying structure here. Terry Theise, Spreitzer’s importer and Riesling guru adds, Weingut Spreitzer strive to maintain fruit(freshness) and finesse by clearing the must (juice) by gravity for 24 hours after a whole-cluster pressing, they then allow the wines to rest on their gross lees and only filter the wine once. They employ a long cool fermentation, and extended lees ageing to protect the juice from oxidation, using mostly ambient (natural) yeasts for fermentation in both temperature controlled stainless steel and their old wood 1,200 liter casks, made of German oak, which are called stückfass, in which this Grosses Gewachs was aged. Drink this stellar wine over the next two decades, this stuff will reward the collector and the patient, though will impress in the shorter term as well, make note to search this one out!
($60 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive