Extreme
2010 Schäfer-Fröhlich
Bockenauer Kabinett - Felseneck Spätlese
Absolutely superb.
I don't know what else to say; how else to introduce the 2010ers of Tim Fröhlich. They are brilliant - perhaps his best ever, though with Tim this phrase is becoming almost meaningless. Every year seems to be a bit better than the last, vintage be damned.
2010 is one of the most extreme vintages EVER for Germany: Shockingly high ripeness levels with even higher acidities. It is a vintage that has confounded just about everyone. It is absolutely unprecedented and anyone that thinks they have the easy answer for you, well... steer clear. (I will have my 2010 Vintage Report online within the next few days for the full breakdown, so stay tuned.)
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Terry Theise, ever the word-smith, summarized verily: “The headline is, what’s good is absurdly good... What’s not good is a mess.”
Let's go ahead and put Tim's wines in the "absurdly good" category. I didn't get a chance to experience them myself until this week - and they were simply stunning - but I've been hearing from a number of people since late February that Tim had made the wines of the vintage in the Nahe. It's too early for such predictions of course, but it seems like a pretty good bet.
Today we present Tim's signature wines, his hometown 2010 Bockenauer Kabinett and the 2010 Felseneck Spätlese, at special pre-arrival pricing. This is an incredible vintage, one that is unlikely to be soon repeated, and it's very, very short, quantities down from 20% to 60% depending on who you talk to.
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I won't go on too much about the wines, but what makes them so compelling in this vintage is their restraint. There are a lot of silly wines out there in 2010. At the recent tasting I was poured an Auslese harvested at some ludicrous ripeness, with enough sugar to out-sweeten syrup and enough acidity to melt a battery. It tasted like someone had thrown a bowling ball at my face, laced with molasses and unripe limes, coated in salt to add injury to insult.
Yet Tim's 2010ers are elegant and transparent, with incredibly chewy, dense, textural mid-palates yet sharp and profoundly mineral. In a vintage of "acidities gone wild," Tim has somehow managed to produce balanced, integrated, finely woven wines. They feel extremely well built - solid.
These are truly exciting wines; highly recommended, highly limited.
We've been supporting Tim since the day we opened our doors and it's been extremely gratifying to see him become the star that he now is... lord knows he deserves it. That said, he's now pretty much a verified rockstar in German winemaking and these wines are his calling cards. Demand will be high.
all orders subject to confirmation. To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Stephen Bitterolf
Wine Director
Crush Wine & Spirits