Horizontal Riesling Suggestion

I'm in a brief lull in my World Cup fever so I thought I'd pose this since I know there are some Rieslingmeisters out there. What two producers would you recommend for a horizontal tasting across Prädikat levels (Kabinett-TBA or even QMP-Eiswien)? The trick of course is this would have to be something in a recent and therefore available vintage but still more or less ready to drink now. One choice each from the trocken and suss ends of the spectrum would be good. Just to make the exercise that bit more tricky the wines would hopefully not be bank breaking, which at the TBA level I realize is probably tricky.

[David M. Bueker]

I actually think your main concern will be availability across the pradikats.

Selbach-Oster is the obvious choice for me, as the wines are top quality across the board & you can get (likely in DC to boot!) anything from kabinett through Eiswein or BA - maybe TBA.

Leitz could be a good choice. Gunderloch is another where there are excellent, available and not bank-breaking choices across the range.

As for specific wines, I would not hazard a guess without knowing where you might shop - hopefully with on-line inventory available.

My two votes would be for Selbach-Oster and von Schubert Maximin Grünhaus.

On the bench would be St. Urbans-hof and perhaps Müller-Catoir. Looks like they have excellent availability of Dönnhoff at MacArthur, but I don't think this would be the best way to show those wonderful wines. Heymann-Lowenstein from Weygandt might be interesting . . . (but importer's shops don't seem likely to offer the best prices, though I may be wrong about that . . .)

I second David B's comment on Selbach and Leitz. Leitz also does some really nice trockens, which could broaden the horizontal even further if you want a dry wine before the sweet stuff.

Schloss Lieser is another producer worth checking out.

Keith, how strong is Lowenstein across styles/pradikats? I had always been under the impression that the majority of his wines were in the harmoniously-dry style with a few very rich/sweet bottlings.

I think that it depends upon what you´d like to accomplisch. If the idea is to compare vineyards or the individual styles of two houses, why not go with Selbach-Oster and Dr Loosen? You´ll be able to find plenty of options from both, and get a clear idea of where they diverge on style because of the overlap in vineyard holdings in Wehlen. Or you could compare Loosens Wehlen holdings with S-O in Zeltingen. Or, you could use Loosen and Christoffel if you wanted to do Ürzig or Erden or Selbach and Willi Schaefer for Graach. TBA and Eiswein might be hard to source.

Can I come?

Cheers,
Bill

[David M. Bueker]

Selbach Eiswein is generally around. They don't do it every year, but it's frequently released. I don't think I have ever seen a Willi Schaefer Eiswein, and I know he has not done a TBA (he stops at BA).

I don't think I have ever seen a Willi Schaefer Eiswein

Saw a couple in Crush's back room yesterday. Prices were frightening. Donnhoff-esque.

[David M. Bueker]

I don't think I have ever seen a Willi Schaefer Eiswein

Saw a couple in Crush's back room yesterday. Prices were frightening. Donnhoff-esque.

Himmelreich?

Yup. '07, and about $200-ish. Yikes.