From: Rheingau, Germany

Varietal: Riesling

Taste: Clear and fine, with a ton of elegance on the palate and nose. Their “business card,” entry-level Riesling from young vines, is picked at the same ripeness level and with the same attention to detail as the single vineyard and GG wines. Open, refreshing, and uncomplicated, in a hugely positive way. You’ll notice a distinct crushed rock, river rock, slate, petrol, kaffir lime, and a saline minerality right away. It opens up to more lip-smacking citrus, white flowers, and granny apple notes over wet stones. Seriously delicious. It’s a perfect anytime wine.

Pairing: The 2021Weingut Spreitzer Riesling Trocken would be amazing as an aperitif, alongside appetizers, salads, and alongside dishes like Pad Thai, Bahn Xeo, Crab Cakes, meals centered around shellfish or fresh vegetables and curries. Go toward dishes that skew toward fresh or spicy and you’ll be set! We’re sharing a recipe by Ali Slagle that brings together all those elements in her recipe for Green Curry Glazed Tofu.

About. The Spreitzer estate, founded in 1641 and one of the oldest in the Rheingau, benefits from a long tradition in winemaking as well as the recent modern winemaking innovations of sons Andreas and Bernd Spreitzer who have controlled the estate since 1997. Bernd and Andreas were the Gault Millau’s Discovery of the Year Award recipients in 2001.

Viticulture practices are as natural as possible at Spreitzer and include alternating cover crops of herbs, greens, and lentils in the summer with grains in the winter. The Spreitzers strive to maintain fruit and finesse by cleaning the must by gravity for 24 hours after whole-cluster pressing, then allowing the wines to rest on their gross lees and only filtering once. The Spreitzers employ a long fermentation, and extended lees aging to protect the juice from oxidation. Mostly ambient yeasts are employed for fermentation in both temperature controlled stainless steel and 1200 liter casks of German wood, called stückfass. The resulting wines show great pedigree.

Many thanks to importer Skurnik Wines for the 2021 vintage report for Germany.

GERMANY 2021: A STRUCTURED, MODERN CLASSIC