Wagner-Stempel Siefersheimer Heerkretz Riesling GG 2017 750ml

The wines of Rheinhessen are supposed to be broad and generous, but this is a masterpiece of delicacy and subtlety. Still rather closed in the nose, where only the smoky aspect of the wine is showing. However, on the palate there's a cascade of stone-fruit, citrus and mineral notes right through the super-long finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink in 2019.

The 2017 vintage was a real character! Spring was warm, and budbreak was in early April, earlier than ever before. However, winter came back brutally with temperatures going down to minus-eight degrees Celsius. The vines recovered quickly, though, and flowering was in mid-June. August until mid-September were comparatively cool weeks, and the harvest had to be done quickly, between September 25 and October 2nd, for the 2017 Heerkretz Riesling GG. Yields were very low, like everywhere in Europe, and they picked just 15-20 hectoliters per hectare for the Heerkretz. The wine opens with a clear and pure, stony rather than fruity nose with lemony and apple mousse notes, and it remains discreet but refined. Full-bodied, intense and sustainably structured by fine tannins and crystalline acidity, this is a mouthfilling and generous but elegant and wide-spanning Riesling with a long, saline and finely grippy but also fruit-intense finish that is carried by serious mineral acidity. It's a great Heerkretz and a real personality. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted from magnum at the domaine in late August 2023.

The elevated Heerkretz site on heterogeneous rhyolite and melaphyre soils has both windy parcels and suntraps, but the wine is always serene. The nose is restrained, but plenty of air allows some zesty lemon to shine through. Already there is something still and solid in this wine which quietly convinces with supple but lithe fluidity. Pure poise and precision will become even clearer with age. An underrated but absolute Rheinhessen star.

Enticing, with a silky mouthfeel and charming aromas of rose petal and lychee, while the palate exhibits an exotic mix of elderflower, roasted peach, tangerine and lemon zest flavors. Clean and fresh, showing a youthful attack, as well as great complexity and length. Give this time to harmonize fully. Best from 2022 through 2032. 600 cases made, 30 cases imported.

White peach, apple and lime are accented by their pits and pits as well as by raw almond on an enticing nose highly reminiscent of that exhibited by the corresponding 2016. Scents of Ceylon tea and spring beauty (Claytonia) add inner-mouth allure. The feel is flatteringly silken, notwithstanding the persistence of stimulating piquancy. Infectious juiciness, along with an invigoratingly tactile, active sense of crystalline stony impingement, dramatically sets this wine's vibrant, bell-clear finish apart from that of its Höllberg sibling.

Intense aromas of smoke and earth are gradually replaced by crisp pear and apple notes that intensify from nose to palate. It's dry and full bodied, with concentrated orchard-fruit flavors moderated by dried herbs and sun-dried hay. It's a complex wine that balances savory and fruity beautifully but needs some time to open. Hold till 2022; it should improve through 2030 and beyond. (Cellar Selection)