2016 Schafer-Frohlich - Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen Riesling Grosses Gewachs
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Tasting notes
From roughly 55-year-old vines on red slate and in a very steep plot, the 2016 Nahe Riesling Frühlingsplätzchen "GG" opens with a super pure, precise and herbal/stony bouquet with flint stone aromas and a touch of red berries. Full-bodied, intense and very elegant on the silky-textured palate, this Riesling has a firm structure with piquant acidity but also shows great finesse and elegance. This is a dense and well-concentrated but highly delicate Riesling with a long, very precise and crystalline finish.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Scents of red currant, red raspberry, white peach and lime are mingled with a lot stronger suggestion of diverse mineral matter – stony, smoky, and saline – than I usually expect from this site. Tart-edged but ripe red fruits get the upper hand on a subtly creamy palate, where crunchy evocations of berry seed and carrot, a sizzle of cinnamon stick and prickly suggestions of peach fuzz convey invigoration if also a bit of phenolic rusticity to the long, stone-, peat- and mineral-salt-tinged finish. In a reversal of what I would have anticipated, this conveys less polish or sheer juiciness than the two Grosse Gewächse from Schlossböckelheim. But that observation must be interpreted in the context of an exceptionally fine collection, not to mention taken for the snapshot that it is. I suspect that this wine is just acting youthfully obstreperous and those who cellar it will be richly rewarded.
Strongly mineral on the nose. Very 'cool' and classic. Some traditionalists may find the nose a bit too pungent and un-fruity. And it certainly has a way to go… but it is SO juicy and drinkable. (JR)