2016 Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen Grosses Gewachs

The 2016 Nahe Riesling Frühlingsplätzchen "GG" is pure, intense and flinty on the nose—very precise and perfectly ripe with coolish, tropical Riesling aromas. Fermented and aged in stück and doppelstück, it is a full-bodied, intense and slightly creamy-textured Frühlingsplätzchen with lots of power and potential. Perfectly round and juicy, this is a very elegant and complex Riesling with a persistent finish.

Deeper colour than most of its peers. Hint of honey on the nose. In fact, it seems relatively low in acidity. Second bottle much racier and more delicate. A worry since the first bottle show no obvious TCA. Real tension and class. Filigree quality. Tippy toppy. Effortless precision. The score is obviously for the second bottle. (JR)

Even more effusively floral than its Frühtau counterpart, this offers iris, violets and lily-of-the-valley. There are aromatic intimations of the luscious white peach, brightly juicy fresh lime and ashen, wet stone accents that then feature prominently on a silken palate. For now at least, there is marginally less delicacy, dynamism or lift here than in the Frühtau, but what a sense of carpeting and grip this wine’s finish represents! It should be fascinating to follow and to see whether, as is certainly intended, it gradually pulls ahead of its ostensibly lesser sibling.