2018 - Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling GG, Schafer-Frohlich

The 2018 Felsenberg Riesling GG opens with a deep, intense and rich, concentrated and aromatic but also flinty bouquet full of ripe Riesling fruits and coolish herbal/vegetal as well gooseberry aromas. On the palate, this is a lush, intense, very mineral, salty-piquant and tightly structured dry Riesling from volcanic rocks. It's a powerful but elegant, fresh and precise Riesling with great complexity and lingering salinity. A fabulous Felsenberg with lots of vitality and youthful grip. 13% alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in August and October 2019.

Pungent scents of juniper berry and huckleberry anticipate the pith and piquancy exhibited on a firm palate. Sage and struck flint heighten the pungency, revealing a reductive tendency familiar from most Schäfer-Fröhlich Rieslings, one that thankfully translates into productive tension on a sappy, subtly resinous midpalate and a vibrantly gripping finish. Look for this to significantly evolve in bottle, hopefully acquiring more generous juiciness as well as textural polish without sacrificing its impressive sense of energy. Felsenberg tends to demand early picking, but Fröhlich said that this year he was able to postpone harvest in certain parcels so as to end up with a more complex whole than might otherwise have been possible.

AP number 18 19. From volcanic soils close to the Nahe. Spontaneous-fermentation-derived herbal notes but also very smoky/mineral and stony. That pepperiness gives the impression there is a little bit of CO2, but I don't think there is. Intensely salty and mouth-watering finish. (JH)