2017 Ayl SCHONFELS Riesling Grosses Gewächs Q.b.A. trocken Faß 11

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The sample of the 2017 Schonfels "Fass 11" ("Grosses Gewächs") is a great mix of crushed slate and citrus flavors. This is the Armani flavor from the Saar. With great purity, finesse and elegance on the palate, this is a very long and complex Riesling of great class and style. The balance between body, minerals and sweetness is just perfect. Tasted March 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt, April 2018

Wine Spectator: Pure and well-integrated, this is redolent of nectarine, with shadings of slate and white pepper. Firms up midpalate, introducing crunchy mineral elements, accented by notes of star anise and tarragon. The long finish features hints of vanilla, with details of tropical fruits. Elegant, showing prominent acidity. Drink now through 2028. 100 cases made. -Juni 2019

Vinous: Like its two Grosses Gewächs stablemates, this bottling delivers peary fruit, but here we have tang and energy that entirely belie its equally low (roughly 6.5 grams) acidity. There is similar glycerol-richness but no heaviness. Smoky marjoram and incisive pepper cress make for a pungent aromatic as well as invigorating palate impression, the latter carrying over into a finish whose piquant aspects cast a lingering glow. The effect, I remarked to Lauer, is as though some snappy, tactilely pungent Grüner Veltliner had been mingled in with ripe Riesling. “That could be partly on account of what’s out there in the vineyard,” he replied, surprising me with new information about these ancient vines that he practically brought back from the dead. “We don’t know just what it is,” he continued, “but it looks from the leaves as though it’s Kleinberger, i.e. Elbling, that’s mixed in with the Riesling.” To me, Schonfels always displays this tension between marginally overripe fruit and piquant, cool herbal elements, and although I have associated that with the lower versus upper parts of the site, vine mix might be a factor. (For more about the remarkable, cliff-hanging parcel of vines from which this wine is sourced, consult my review of the corresponding 2015.) - David Schildknecht, Okt. 2019