WTN: 2013 JB Becker Riesling

I know the old bottles of Becker have been making their way around the US, and one of my local Berlin merchants has been touting the wines for a while, so he finally convinced me to buy the 2013 J.B. Becker Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spätlese Trocken Alte Reben. I was not sure what to expect in terms of flavor profile or structure because I don't drink much riesling of any kind these days from the Rheingau.

I enjoyed the brisk linear direction of it all and would be happy to drink the wines again. But I didn't come away from this one bottle a convert, because the structure seemed a little tense and lacking in depth/layers, despite the fact that there was plenty of alcoholic power and weight. A combination of elements that did not seem super.

I followed it over 2 days, although perhaps I need to just forget it and come back in 2 decades! What do I know.

Rahsaan, have you seen todays posting elsewhere on the 2015 BerlinCup Kabinett?

Had not seen that prior to your prompting because I'm traveling at the moment.

Lots of great wines out there!

Don't think I've ever had this producer- I have had Becker Spatburgunder, but pretty sure that was a Pfalz producer.
I believe Zachys recently offered some, but I passed as with Riesling I concentrate my buying on known (to me) producers.

Don't think I've ever had this producer- I have had Becker Spatburgunder, but pretty sure that was a Pfalz producer.
I believe Zachys recently offered some, but I passed as with Riesling I concentrate my buying on known (to me) producers.

Lots of Beckers. But I know Crush has been promoting JB Becker (and selling some of his older wines going back to the early 70s). I think there was also a JB Becker dinner at the recent Rieslingfeier. So I had heard of some of this 'buzz' but not tasted any. After this 2013 the local Berlin merchant sent me a list of the older vintages he has on offer, but unfortunately as far back as 71

I searched and the Zachy's offering was for this exact same wine ('13 WW Spat dry old vine). At $40 there are other choices I'm more confident in ("plenty of alcoholic power" isn't a big plus for me).
But looking back I see Crush with '90 Spatlese for $40, that's more like it.

I searched and the Zachy's offering was for this exact same wine ('13 WW Spat dry old vine). At $40 there are other choices I'm more confident in ("plenty of alcoholic power" isn't a big plus for me).

I paid 20euros and thought it was fair value, perhaps closed and difficult to evaluate, but definitely not my style for $40. To be fair, it's not a bruiser like some of the Rheinhessen dry wines. But it was either 13 or 13.5% on the label and had more brooding alcoholic power than my ideal, which is admittedly skewed towards racy, but it is what it is.