They are super wines. I still have a bunch.
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Click here for a link to his report.
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Awesome to hear you enjoyed your first Riesling! Now you’re forever hooked. 
Friendly word of advice: don’t shop at Total Wine for Riesling (and, quite frankly, wine in general). Instead, find an independent fine wine retailer in your area and shop there. I am not familiar with the selection in Houston, but I have heard of Spec’s, and know them to be good. I just took a quick look at their Riesling selection online – didn’t look long and hard, just long enough to get a sense – and it’s a hell of a lot better than Total Wine
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I’ve never heard “Pigo”, but I have a confident guess at to what it references. I’ve never had this bottling, so cannot comment on it generally or relatively, but your “bit softer than recent editions” comment (yes, a relative comment) isn’t far from my general impression that the Piesporter Goldtropfchen vineyard usually produces fruit that leads to softer wines. At least, that’s been my experience, and it’s why I avoid wines from this vineyard.
Will attend a “normal people” one in two weeks hosted by Ripley:
Weingut Aldinger
Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier
Weingut Bertram-Baltes
Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff
Weingut Rudolf Fürst
Weingut Maximin Grünhaus
Weingut Fritz Haag
Weingut Dr. Heger
Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein
Weingut F.E. Huff
Weingut Jülg
Weingut Holger Koch
Weingut Kühling-Gillot
Weingut Peter-Jakob Kühn
Weingut Peter Lauer
Weingut Rudolf May
Weingut Georg Mosbacher
Weingut Rings
Weingut Willi Schaefer
Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich
Weingut Schloss Lieser
Weingut Peter Wagner
Weingut Wagner-Stempel
Shelter Winery
Weingut Wittmann
Weingut Ziereisen
And new releases from JJ Prüm and a selection of VDP Auction wines
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Absolutely what I thought until about 15 years ago… And what one finds if you don’t pick one from a small handful of producers. Its also a huge vineyard.
It’s a hot site - but with good water access in many parts.
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@N_Higdon if looking for Riesling in Houston, AOC Selections (just north of 59 between Greebriar and Kirby) tends to bring in some good stuff. By a large margin the best wine shop in Houston, IMO. (Also, DM me if you want me to add you to our local Berserkers whatsapp group where we plan offlines.)
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Much of the Piesporter Goldtröpfchen and Domherr vineyards were grubbed up for land restructuring in the 1980s and early 1990s. During this period, the Roman wine press was unearthed in Piesport in 1985.
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“…Beim Oekonommierat Rebholz stach für mich der Burrweiler 2025 SCHÄWER Ökonomierat Rebholz in diesem Jahr in besonderer Weise heraus…”
Interesting sentiments, although hard to make much of them.
I doubt I’ll ever taste as many different 2025 GGs as he did, but I have been curious about the new one from Rebholz, so will look for it.
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Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind, especially for Riesling. The Total Wine Riesling situation around me is definitely not great. I’ve browsed Spec’s and AOC’s sites for a while, and they’re much better.
The problem for me is that I’m not actually near any of the better stores. I’m way out in Lake Jackson, so it’s already about 40 minutes to Pearland and another 30+ to get into Houston proper. We do have a Spec’s in Angleton, but the wine selection there is basically grocery-store level.
AOC has a great selection, and I already subscribe to their email list, but it’s hard to justify that kind of drive for one or two bottles. So for me, I’ll probably stick with H-E-B for everyday shopping and save AOC or the Smith Street Spec’s for when I’m making a more deliberate wine run.
And thanks for the heads up on the whatsapp group, I’ll drop you a line!
That goes for many famous sites.
Yes, that’s true. But Piesport underwent a significant land restructuring more recently than many other sites. Since then, Wehlen has undergone a Flurbereinigung.
Plenty of old vines still though.
The majority of the remaining old vines are situated at the opposite ends of the grand slope in Ferres and Niederemmel.
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But with some of the best sites in the centre too!
Hard to generalise with such a large area I suppose.
As far as I know, a part of Piesporter Domherr still has old vines, but the central part of Piesporter Goldtröpfchen was replanted.
A.J. Adam has old vines in the Ferres sector, and Nik Weis has old vines in the Niederemmel sector.
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I’d have said the area around Schubertslay was central. But I’m not so sure.
Schubertslay is in the Ferres sector.
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Adding to my Germany bucketlist!
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We had a few very good Rieslings over the past week or so. [Just posting on the real winners from among more wines.]
JJ Prum 2009 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese. Beautifully rich wine but still with good balancing acidity. Seemed a bit young at first but opened up nicely after a few minutes.
Molitor 2021 Urziger Wurzgarten Kabinett. I don’t have much experience at all with wines from Molitor. Last week I got to sample a few, including this wine. Very rich for a 2021 Kabinett and showing less acidity than I would have expected from the vintage. My guess is that the acidity is just hiding behind all the luscious fruit in the wine.
Also noteworthy from Molitor was a 2005 BA (from several vineyards. Very impressive wine - rich with excellent acidity.
Abtsberg Spatlese 2016. Usually, I find 2016s too soft for me, but apparently not in the Ruwer. Fabulous wine.
Reinhold Haart 2007 Wintricher Ohligsberg Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel - This was a fabulous GK Austlese. I love sweeter German wines with a nice combination of richness and acidity and this really hit home for me.
As did a 2015 Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen BA. Just a luscious wine with significantly more richness than the GK Auslese but perhaps less acidity. Just a wow wine.
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