Riesling Hunting?

I posted this a few months back "over there" and got some good feedback. This upcoming weekend I am heading to Houston and I plan on spending all afternoon at Spec's, which has tonnes and tonnes of wines. Most importantly they have myriad producers of German Rielsing. Other than the obvious of Prum, Christofel and Donhoff, what years, vineyards, etc. should I look for in the $40 and under game.

TIA

Mel? You've got some tips, I'm sure.

Justin might, but he doesn't drink anything 'under $40' so unless you can find splits of splits, he won't be helping out

I'll also say that they are deep in Burgs as well. Suggestions on $40 whites to search out?

Contact Major Franks, he's and expert at finding the finest wines at the best prices, and he really knows his Rieslings.

Steve Saxon wrote:Contact Major Franks, he's and expert at finding the finest wines at the best prices, and he really knows his Rieslings.

Why isn't he here yet?

Bill Tex Landreth wrote:

Steve Saxon wrote:Contact Major Franks, he's and expert at finding the finest wines at the best prices, and he really knows his Rieslings.

Why isn't he here yet?

I didn't speak to him yesterday, Was he invited?

From our buddy Posner:

2001 Selbach Oster Riesling Auslese Graacher Domprobst
3 btls available
Regular Price: $36.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $19/btl (SAVE 49%!)

2002 Clusserath Weiler Riesling Spatlese Mehringer Zellerberg
4 btls available
Regular Price: $26.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $15/btl (SAVE 44%!)

2002 JJ Christoffel Riesling Auslese ** Urziger Wurzgarten
11 btls available
Regular Price: $42.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $26/btl (SAVE 40%!)
WA 93
"Almond, spice, and floral scents emanate from the glass of the 2002 Riesling Auslese Urziger Wurzgarten **. An expansive, magnificently broad wine, it is fat, rich, pure, and possesses an impressively long finish. Copious quantities of super-ripe pears are intermingled with spices and honeyed slate in this effort’s highly expressive character."

2003 Robert Weil Riesling Spatlese Kiedrich Grafenberg
8 btls available
Regular Price: $46.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $29/btl (SAVE 32%!)
WS 93
"A delicious spätlese, bursting with apricot, orange and vanilla notes, all backed by good acidity. Needs a little time to settle down, but shows elegance, concentration and good length. Best from 2006 through 2015."

2003 Selbach Oster Riesling Auslese Bernkastler Badstube
15 btls available
Regular Price: $29.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $21/btl (SAVE 30%!)
WA 93
"Aromatically demure, yet expressive, expansive, and medium to full-bodied on the palate, the 2003 Riesling Auslese Bernkastler Badstube reveals an oily-textured, seductive as well as rich character. Bursting with thick layers of spiced red berries, it reveals additional flavors of sweet slate, apples, and honeyed minerals. Pure, deep, and lush, this wine also possesses a long, fruit-packed finish."

2003 Selbach Oster Riesling Auslese * Zeltinger Schlossberg
14 btls available
Regular Price: $37.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $22/btl (SAVE 42%!)
WA 92
"Though its nose is dominated by sulfur, a trait that will disappear within 6 months, the sultry Riesling Auslese Zeltinger Schlossberg* is a sweet, soft, silky-textured wine filled with flavors reminiscent of apples, raspberries, red currants, and poached pears. A powerful underlying minerality comes to the fore in the mid-palate and is extended into this effort’s impressively long finish."

2003 Selbach Oster Riesling Auslese *** Zeltinger Sonnenuhr
11 half btls available
Regular Price: $44.99/half btl
Grapes Sale Price: $25/half btl (SAVE 44%!)
WS 94
"Loads of finesse and apricot, honey and lime notes mark this elegant auslese. Very concentrated, yet light on its feet, with a long finish."

2004 Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese Norheimer Kirschheck
15 btls available
Regular Price: $39.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $29/btl (SAVE 28%!)
WA 95
"The 2004 Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spatlese offers a gorgeous aroma of honeysuckle, lime, cherry, and sweet florality, followed by a billowing, wafting array of similar ilk on a palate of utmost depth and polish. A finish featuring distilled cherry essence, flowers, smoky pungency and savory saltiness and shrimp shell minerality lays on the layers of flavor and clings like crazy. This extraordinary wine should be able to stand its ground in the company of the estate’s best at any time over the next two decades."

2004 Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese Oberhauser Brucke
20 btls available
Regular Price: $49.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $32/btl (SAVE 36%!)
WA 94+
"From the 2004 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese rise aromas of honey, grapefruit, candied lemon and blueberries. Blue fruit and honey are poured over the palate as well, creamy and rich, yet animated by insistently bright citricity, high-toned esters of distilled berries, nippy notes of invigoratingly tart fruit skin, and mineral salts. The finish is a veritable fugue of intricate flavors, exhibiting astonishing clarity and length. Less ethereal than the Norheim Spatlesen, this is uncanny in its balance and complexity and, given the proclivities of young Spatlese from this site, certainly a bit behind the other Spatlesen of this collection in its development.

2004 Schafer Frohlich Riesling Spatlese Felseneck
3 btls available
Regular Price: $44.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $29/btl (SAVE 36%!)
WA 94
"While the Halenberg Spatlese was fermented with selected yeasts, the gauze-like shroud of youthful yeastiness and CO2 give away origins of the 2004 Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spatlese A.P. #17 in spontaneous (and, says Frohlich, “endlessly long”) fermentation. This wine is from the highest portions of the towering Felseneck vineyard. The nose clears to reveal yellow and red plum aromas. The palate impression is one of astonishingly vivid fresh plum, dripping with fresh lime, but without the obvious verve of the Halenberg. The mineral expression is a suffusion of salts and infusion of shrimp shells rather than the dynamically diverse range exhibited in the Halenberg. The balance is just extraordinarily poised (despite an unbelievably high nearly 90 grams residual sugar), and the finish pure, sedate, yet endlessly refreshing and satisfying."

2005 Gunderloch Riesling Auslese ***
10 btls available
Regular Price: $52.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $25/btl (SAVE 53%!)


2005 Robert Weil Riesling Spatlese
7 btls available
Regular Price: $44.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $22/btl (SAVE 51%!)
WS 91
"Has an added dimension of ripeness and concentration. Apricot, peach and lemon notes mingle with the bright acidity. Overall, starts better than it finishes."

2006 JJ Prum Riesling Auslese Graacher Himmelreich
20 btls available
Regular Price: $44.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $33/btl (SAVE 27%!)
WS 95
"Seamless from start to finish. Aromas of rose, slate and smoke segue into lime and peach flavors in this elegant, stately white. Crisp and transparent, with precise balance and a classic Mosel profile. Has a long, mouthwatering finish."


2006 JJ Prum Riesling Auslese Wehlener Sonnenuhr
23 btls available
Regular Price: $52.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $29/btl (SAVE 45%!)
WS 93
"Aromatic, offering smoke, slate, peach and floral aromas and picking up a lime accent on the palate. Lighter than air, with a silky texture and a long, tangy aftertaste. There's a nice combination of intensity and delicacy."

2006 JJ Prum Riesling Auslese Wehlener Sonnenuhr
23 btls available
Regular Price: $52.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $29/btl (SAVE 45%!)
WS 93
"Aromatic, offering smoke, slate, peach and floral aromas and picking up a lime accent on the palate. Lighter than air, with a silky texture and a long, tangy aftertaste. There's a nice combination of intensity and delicacy."

2006 JJ Prum Riesling Auslese Zeltinger Sonnenuhr
8 btls available
Regular Price: $44.99/btl
Grapes Sale Price: $20/btl (SAVE 56%!)


Wine is offered subject remaining and to final confirmation.
Wines are in stock.

Please note new contact details:
Daniel Posner
Grapes The Wine Company
731 North Broadway
White Plains, NY 10603
Tele: 914-397-WINE (9463)
Fax: 914-397-9455
www.grapesthewineco.com


Some good prices there.

I don't think there were any invites...just people finding us via Facebook. I can most definitely shoot him an email to join up.

Wow Jorge, seems like some screaming deals in there based on price. I know so little that I don't know what to jump at.

Yea he's not on Facebook.

Steve Saxon wrote:Yea he's not on Facebook.

Ahh...would make sense then.

Bill Tex Landreth wrote:Wow Jorge, seems like some screaming deals in there based on price. I know so little that I don't know what to jump at.

Bill,

The 01 seems like a "too good to be true" deal. Probably gone since there were only 3 bottles. After that, I have a soft spot for Selbach-Oster (not as reknowned as the other so prices are more reasonable and still killer juice). Basically ANYTHING 02, 05 & 06. Shoot Dan an email and ask what's left. Also, let him know about this forum so he can come in and be his warm, lovable self.

Will do...and I like Posner FWIW.

Bill Tex Landreth wrote:Will do...and I like Posner FWIW.

So do I. I was in his store on Friday picking up some CdP. Coincidence of coincidences, he gratuated high school with Zoe. 1 degree of separation.

Great pricing on that Posner list.

Bill, if you are just buying off the shelf then in general I would just steer clear of any 2006's. Mixed vintage so you gotta know what you are looking for. Sounds like 2007 is a buy as is any 2004's and 2005's they might have. 04 to 05 is a nice comparison across the same wines as both vintages are good but different.

*

Thanks Justin. I actually got a boatload of Molitor wines last year at Costco. Got the '05 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese ** for around $35 a botlle of so. Really, really like it.

*

I really like them. I basically bought them on the 97pts the Spectacle gave them...no comments please...last year. I don't know if it is a 97 point riesling as I have no frame of reference, but you are correct in that they are screamingly good. The beerenauslese sounds pretty tasty as well.

Bill talk to Zach at Specs. He has an incredible knowledge and passion for German rieslings. and he is a BB member.

DavidSawyer wrote:Bill talk to Zach at Specs. He has an incredible knowledge and passion for German rieslings. and he is a BB member.

Is he at the Smith Street Warehouse? I would assume so, since the others have zippo for riesling.

Bill,
Have you figured out what you're looking for in terms of flavor profile?
I like the mineral qualities of both the Pfalz and the Rheingau. Robert Weil and Joseph Leitz especially.
Donhoff also.
I don't have a lot of experience but maybe that's an O/L waiting to happen.

Bill Tex Landreth wrote:

DavidSawyer wrote:Bill talk to Zach at Specs. He has an incredible knowledge and passion for German rieslings. and he is a BB member.

Is he at the Smith Street Warehouse? I would assume so, since the others have zippo for riesling.

Yeah he is there. Blonde hair and glasses. He always helps me with Rieslings. They have a pretty good amount of the '07s in right now too. I bought a few Donnhoffs recently.

DavidSawyer wrote:

Bill Tex Landreth wrote:

DavidSawyer wrote:Bill talk to Zach at Specs. He has an incredible knowledge and passion for German rieslings. and he is a BB member.

Is he at the Smith Street Warehouse? I would assume so, since the others have zippo for riesling.

Yeah he is there. Blonde hair and glasses. He always helps me with Rieslings. They have a pretty good amount of the '07s in right now too. I bought a few Donnhoffs recently.

Cool. I'll search him out and pick his brain...plus I'll mention that I am a Squires Board Legend.