2021 Weingut Spreitzer, Riesling, Wisselbrunnen, VDP Grosses Gewächs, Rheingau, Germany.
Again, I love the Speitzer Wisselbrunnen Grand Cru Riesling, which is powerful, earthy, enchanting and mysterious with it’s mainly loam and loess soils showing through with restrained fruit, spice, phenolic grip and its regal lengthy finish. As per normal here, since I first reviewed the 2013 version, there’s an intriguing array of persimmon, kumquat, green apple, white tea, chalky stones and a steely core of lime and white peach. The leesy richness in this Wisselbrunne GG is matched nicely by firm acidity and tension, this is always a fantastic Riesling and without question a great value in the this league of wines, with this 2021 just beginning to come out of its shell and giving hints of secondary complexity, gaining some smoky mineral flinty notes, rosewater, burnt orange and dried apricot. It’s funny, but I sometimes overlook the Wisselbrunnen GG in the reviews of Spreitzer’s wines, not because it doesn’t deserve mention, it is just that it is so obviously an exceptional dry Riesling every time I try it that I think people would get bored hearing just how good it is! The Spreitzer estate, as I’ve noted, is vastly different to other areas of the Rheingau, with a totally proprietary mix of exposures and soils, this is why the two Grand Crus, the Wisselbrunnen and Rosengarten, as so contrasting with the Rosengarten being the more overt and fruity/flirty and the Wisselbrunnen the more reserved, austere and complex in style, as seen here.
The Weingut Josef Spreitzer, as I’ve explained in my prior reviews, now run by the brothers, Andreas and Bernd Spreitzer, was originally founded back in 1641, making it one of the oldest family wineries in the Rheingau, is located not far from the Rhein villages of Hattenheim, Oestrich-Winkel and Etville, where the Rhein river is at its widest point, it creates an almost lake effect and the terroir is quite unique here with less slate than just down the river in Rudesheim and the soils here vary, as mentioned above, 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 and complexities in Spreitzer’s diverse offerings. As mentioned in my prior reviews, Weingut Spreitzer strives to maintain fruit intensity, vibrancy and freshness, looking for finesse, so they settle 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 during the fermentation and aging period. They employ a long cool fermentation, and extended lees elevage to protect the juice from oxidation, using mostly ambient (natural) yeasts for fermentation in both temperature controlled stainless steel and their old wood. They used the classic 1,200 liter casks, made of German oak, which are called Stückfass, in which this Grosses Gewachs was matured for close to 9 months before bottling, after which the wine is held almost a year before release. The whole collection at Spreitzer is full of quality efforts, and I’m excited to see what the next set of wines looks like next month, but in the meantime, be sure to look for the outstanding GG wines from 2021, 2022 and 2023!
($60 ESt.) 94 Points, grapelive