2010 Schafer Frohlich, Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling GG, Nahe 1x750ml

Robert Parker 93

Frohlich’s 2010 Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewachs is qualitatively well in front of his other dry wines of this vintage. The transparency to mineral nuance – here wet stone, crystalline impingement, and mouthwatering salinity – that could be discerned in this bottling’s lesser Felseneck trocken sibling here applies to riper and more assertive fruit. Grapefruit, white currant, lime, and yellow plum are further accented by smoky black tea, toasted squash seeds and nut oils on a palate electrically charged with acidity; phenolically intense (one perceives this site’s typically high percentage of tiny, millerandage berries); yet lean only in a positive, athletic sense. (And at 5.9 grams of residual sugar, incidentally, here is the driest of this year’s dry Schafer-Frohlich Rieslings.) This grippingly sustained, invigoratingly energetic if for now somewhat rough-hewn Grosses Gewachs ought to merit the better part of a decade’s attention. [David Schildknecht, 12/01/2011]