Here’s some info on it from Karl Ress:
http://www.ress-wein.de/media/files/price_lists/2020-FB-engl.pdf
Totally bizarre. I just searched the Wine Spectator ratings, and Rothenberg TBA got the 100 point ratings. Is this perhaps the recovery of an old parcel name that was formerly just labeled as Rothenberg?
I have 2011 and 2015 Lieser NH TBAs.
I have 2006 Lieser Niederberg Helden TBAs. Loved the NH BA from that vintage, so I’m expecting big things. In 2019, I got some LGKAs from Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Niederberg Helden, and Graacher Domprobst, which are like nicely priced BAs. I can’t really find any 2020 Schloss Liesers around here (SoCal), so I’m considering trying to win some at the auction.
For Schloss Lieser, you can find their winery pricing here: Unsere Weine zum Bestellen - Weingut Schloss Lieser Thomas Haag
Their Doctor GG is a limited release that only comes with their 6 bottle GG selection case. I buy a few every year, about €250 each at the winery.
Pricing aside, this is for me a world class winery: superb quality across all prädikat levels, great vineyards and just very nice and approachable people!
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Not that bizarre. Fenchelberg is small monopol-vineyard/parcel inside of larger Rothenberg vineyard and Gunderloch has mainly produced “Rothenberg auslese” from that parcel so wine labelled as “Fenchelberg” has not released before. Check the link: VDP: N11 FENCHELBERG GG Gunderloch where you can also see old map and location of the parcel.
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Lieser kabinetts did cost ~€12 just a couple of years ago, now they are 14.90 from cellar door so as a percentage prices have actually rosen in a couple of years quite a bit. Sure wines are still cheap but breaking the €15 glass roof for a Mosel kabi would probably have some kind of effect for domestic customers.
So it’s exactly what I said, an old parcel getting bottled under its own name. Marketing it as the 100 point TBA vineyard takes a little more explanation given the name difference.
I’m also not wild about dry Riesling with botrytis influence, so will not be jumping for a wine that comes from a parcel renowned for its TBA.
Well the main reason why Gunderloch started to produce dry wine from this parcel was that it won’t produce botrytis that easily anymore: “As noble rot often failed to appear in the increasingly dry climate, we realized in recent years that this extremely exciting parcel also produces outstanding dry wines with a character all their own.” plus it is cooler & shadier location than where Rothenberg GG is picked so I would rather anticipate it being slim & elegant than botrytis monster. I’m not a bidder as GG prices will probably go mad in VDP-Nahe auction anyway but this is surely quite a special wine as Gunderloch has skipped auctions since 2015(?). And this is not because of weak wines…
As an auction skeptic I certainly won’t be bidding.
Has anyone tried the 2020 pradikat wines from Maximin Grunhaus yet? After the performance of those 2019s in their youth, especially the Herrenberg Kabinett, I’m curious how the 2020s compare.
Yes. Not dissimilar to 2019. If you want Spatlese buy Kabi. Etc.
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I haven’t tried the 2020 wines yet, though I adored the '19 Herrenberg Kabinett. It’s interesting though how different the reviews are from MFW for the '19 and '20. Both get a 94, but the '19 emphasizes stone fruit and creaminess. The '20 is all about citrus.
Mind if I ask why you’re an auction skeptic? I haven’t ever bought anything from the german auctions, but that’s largely due to inertia and price rather than any specific position on the issue.
I started tasting auction wines back in the 1990s, and never found them to be “extra special” enough to warrant chasing. Later I got a few auction wines through the old Dee Vine that were completely cooked. Now the price escalation has put another nail in that coffin. I was actually still going to bid this year, but decided to stick to my long-term favorite regular releases.
Thanks! That actually makes me feel much more comfortable with my strategy to buy regular releases too. I was wondering whether it was worth tracking down some auction bottlings at some point since I like the regular releases so much.
I bought my first auction wines last year. The bottling was the 2019 Clemens Busch Kabinett - a producer I really enjoy and this is one of the value plays available at the auction. Sadly haven’t tried one yet … takes a while for the wines to drift around the world.
Still, I’m undecided about whether to bid this year. Clemens Busch Kabi’s will likely be another excellent deal. I’m tempted by the Schaefer and Von Schubert Kabinetts, mostly out of curiosity how they compare to the regular bottlings that are among my favorites every year. Perhaps Prüm Spätlese. Most of the wines at the auction are Auslese/BA/TBA and both the pricing and the infrequency in which I open those very sweet wines makes it easy to resist.
I re-read this thread again and now I realize it is not really titled correctly. What most of you mean by “2020 German Riesling” is actually “2020 MOSEL Riesling.” And not just any Mosel, but the Mosel that is exported to the USA. Is that the main region you guys are interested in? A few times somebody mentions something from the Nahe (or maybe Rheinhessen), but the discussion always comes back to Mosel wines very quickly. Why is that? I mean, “German Riesling” is much bigger than the Mosel. There are many other interesting regions.
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This is a predominantly US board, and it’s hard to talk knowledgably about wines we cannot experience. So we talk mainly about wines we can experience. If you want to talk about other wines, please go ahead. We will listen.
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I think the Board talks a lot about non-Mosel Riesling.
Also regarding your point about just Mosel wine exported to the USA. Can you give me three great Mosel producers that are not imported to the U.S.? Just curious…
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