MCF Rare Wine

Every Element of Riesling That I Love in One $20 Bottle

Eva Fricke is arguably the most important young winemaker in the Rheingau.  Her higher-end, tiny-production bottles, both dry and off-dry, have garnered a fiercely loyal following, and she's on nearly everyone's list of producers to keep an eye on.

And she's also a very sweet and super passionate person!

Just a bit ago, I tasted her lovely off-dry Riesling call Melliflous Elements 2016, which is a sort of one-off bottling that resulted from the fermentation stopping early on a single barrel of what was supposed to be her 'Rheingau Trocken'.

Upon tasting it, she decided it was pretty dang nice as is, so she made no efforts to restart things...and here we are with a very fairly-priced wine that, for me, blends everything I love about her wines, and fine German Riesling in general.

The 2016 vintage is all about electric verve and blazing clarity, and this wine shows that off perfectly.

First of all, it's as aromatically complex as a $20 (or much more, for that matter) wine can get - bright white fruits, lovely floral patterns and super high-toned citric notes.

On the palate, it pretty much embodies the idea of 'tension', a concept that all Riesling hounds fawn over.  There's a zen-like push and pull between the fruit and the acids here.

The delicately sweet and textured fruit is interwoven with great metallic energy that gives way to an incredibly mineral core that blazes off the finish with electric acidity.

Fruit.

Mineral.

Acid.

Mellifluous indeed!

There're also some beautifully statuesque Magnums available, in case you want to own the Thanksgiving table!

These arrive on Monday 11/20!

Matt Franco