2016 Felseneck Grosses Gewachs

The 2016 Nahe Riesling Felseneck "GG" is super pure, precise, crystalline and flinty on the nose and palate, a great expression of the slatey terroir. There is a fascinating blueberry and floral expression like that of the Halenberg but even more fragrant and intertwined with notes of crushed slate. Harvested at the very end of October, this is a highly elegant, finessed and balanced Felseneck with perfectly ripe, juicy fruit. The wine is dry but perfectly balanced, while the finish is long, piquant and salty, full of crushed stones, fine tannins and lingering fruit intensity. The 2016 is a great dry Riesling and probably the best I have tasted here so far.

Cooling mint and high-toned evocations of bittersweet floral perfume (iris, gentian) mingle with struck flint, sea breeze, wet stone and other anticipations of the remarkable diversity of mineral nuances that characterize the polished, vibrant midpalate. Nor is there any lack of luscious primary fruit in the familiar but not for that reason any less alluring guise of white peach and lime. The striking interaction of fruity, floral, and stony, smoky, crystalline, nearly ineffable mineral elements on the finish takes on kaleidoscopic dynamic and complexity, while a strong upwelling of maritime salinity serves to milk the salivary glands. The sense of sheer energy and penetration here goes beyond even that of the old-vines-dominated Stromberg, leaving one’s gullet reverberating like the swelling of an overtone-rich organ pipe.

Very pale greenish straw. Pungent and intriguing. Transparent, 'cool' and with notable freshness. Acidity is notable; probably best to wait a little. But this is so juicy and dangerously thirst-quenching. Only Germany could produce a wine like this. (JR)