Halenberg, Riesling, Grosses Gewächs, 2018
This is compact and tightly wound with stones and slate at its centre. Crisp peach, anise and green apricot notes surround the rigid core of minerals and extract, so dense it seems almost chewy at heart, explosively mineral and saline. A shower of stones, power built from crushed rocks and slate.
critic reviews
Crushed stone and sea breeze along with zesty lime and grapefruit characterize both the pungent nose and the formidably concentrated palate impression. Firmer in feel than the corresponding Frühlingsplätzchen and with sharper, more clearly defined citricity and stony inflections, this shares sense of fullness (at something over 13% alcohol) with the present collection’s other dry wines, but evinces no heaviness and at most the merest hint of heat. Mouthwatering salinity and a shimmering sense of crystalline stony impingement rather unexpectedly rise to the occasion on a finish whose sheer fruit intensity is so prominent.