German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

when the wine was outstanding I thought “Man am I
lucky I got here before anyone else did…”
Bechtheim lies just where the hills begin, on the west
flank of the Rhein plain. The key sites for Riesling are
Geyersberg—the best one—made up of chalky loess and
tertiary marl. The Rosengarten is above the village, on grav-
elly sand and clay, and the Hasensprung rolls off to the west
on similar soil. It’s a somewhat large estate—28 hectares,
about 30% Riesling—and I infer that young Johannes came
home from Geisenheim full of the restless idealistic spirit of
these times: lower yields, tenderer cellar work. And the
results are dramatic, and the prices still humane.
Honorable traditional Rheinhessen estate energized with the
geil at a glance:
arrival of a young lion. Outstanding modern white wines
(Riesling, Scheurebe, Rieslaner) at wonderfully reasonable prices. An emblem of the
quixotic new generation in Rheinhessen.
Firm, delineated, clear, complex, healthy and radiant. I
how the wines taste:
would teach a seminar with them, saying “This is the
quality you can now expect from a solid young grower in Germany making wines in
unexceptional conditions from good but not great land.”
GGE-007 2005 Bechtheimer Geyersberg Riesling Spätlese Trocken
Vital, almost minerally nose with a hint of Clone-90 mandarin; limpid and winsome
and full of fruit, more Alsatian than “typically” German; this has juicy length without
real acid-grip; its focus is phenolic.
SOS: 0 (now - 3 years, again 9-12 years)
GGE-008 2005 Bechtheimer Geyersberg Riesling Spätlese Feinherb
Quite like its drier sibling; forest-herbs and plum-blossom and toasted brioche; juicy,
curvy and forthright; exotic and pliant, with good fruit-mineral shimmer.
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 1 (now-4 years, again 12-16 years)
GGE-009 2005 Bechtheimer Heilig Kreuz Scheurebe Kabinett
This is the herbal grapefruit side of Scheu; elegant and refined; wonderfully kinetic and
tactile play on the palate; a Scheu bed with silk sheets; euphorically aromatic (limezest);
a gulper!
SOS: 2 (now-5 years)
GGE-012 2005 Bechtheimer Rosengarten Riesling Kabinett
Tighter and spicier than the dry wines, with more pronounced (though hardly shrill)
acidity; a juicily chewy wine with spiced-apple; really a tabula rasa of Rhineland Riesling.
SOS: 2 (4-13 years)
GGE-011 2005 Bechtheimer Geyersberg Riesling Spätlese
A big jump in ripeness umami from the Kabinett; ginger and candied lemon, gold
berries and clean botrytis; quince and woodruff; a clean, charming old-school Riesling
that’s no sweeter-seeming than the Kabinett.
SOS: 2 (7-20 years)
GGE-006H 2004 Bechtheimer Geyersberg Rieslaner Auslese, 12/500ml +
A classic: it’s like 12-tone music here, eerily beautiful and viciously complex; it plays on
every papillae and cell of your palate and has a wizard-lash of pepper and solidity, as
if it were fined with Titanium; imposing granular power; smoky and mirabelle and
almost a grappa note; actually a food-wine despite its iron-mass and richness. Bravo!
SOS: 2 (between now and two years; again from nine to fifteen)
SOMMELIER ALERT!
GGE-013H 2005 Bechtheimer Geyersberg Rieslaner BA, 12/375ml +
Refined but massive fragrance; maple and vanilla; the palate is a bacchanale of passion
fruit and papaya, almost overwhelmingly cake-like but anchored by varietal grip and
power; really TBA in style.
SOS: 4 (15-32 years)
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RHEINHESSEN WINES