"Tim Fröhlich is currently at the height of his powers"
2011 Schäfer-Fröhlich
Felseneck Spätlese GK
Dead Serious in 2011
"Laser-like focus and a brilliantly long, complex and weightless finish. Glorious juice!" -John Gilman
Over the past seven years Germany has seen great, good and complicated (06, 10) vintages. And throughout all of these vintages Schäfer-Fröhlich's wines have just kept getting better.
Tim Frohlich is without a doubt one of the most skillful and dedicated winemakers in Germany. And if 2011 is becoming known for its more gentle structures and its charming layer of fruit, it is a very, very different story at Schafer-Frohlich - this Gold Kapsule Spätlese is dead serious in its structure, precision and clarity.
This is Spätlese in its most glorious form; this is one of the wines of the vintage and is NOT TO BE MISSED.
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| Felseneck Vineyard |
We first introduced this wine to the U.S. with the 2006 vintage - this represents our sixth offer on the wine and every year, the bottling sells out nearly immediately.
The signature here is force; Tim's 2011 Felseneck Spätlese GK struts a kaleidoscopic mid-palate of minerals, flowers, layers of citrus zests and red fruits. The presentation is painfully precise, concentrated and ending with a shimmering length. To return to Gilman's quote above, it's "glorious juice."
Tim said he had never harvested such beautiful grapes as he had in 2011 and you can taste it. The GK's, like up-and-down Schäfer-Fröhlich's collection, display a clarity that only the best fruit can give.
It's telling that in this ripe and rather generous vintage, where many winemakers reported huge harvests (especially in comparison with the difficult, small harvests of 2010), Tim said his harvests were bigger than 2010, but not by much. One of the reasons is that Tim was ruthless about selection, making repeated trips through the vineyard. As always, he harvested late - final harvests weren't until the end of October, which was very late for this vintage.
It feels like we essentially say this with every vintage, but fans of Schäfer-Fröhlich and Riesling in general won't want to miss his 2011 Felseneck Spätlese GK. As John Gilman writes, "Tim Fröhlich is currently at the height of his powers."
It's difficult to know if Schafer-Frohlich will continue his seemingly impossible feat of improving each year. What's clear is that his Felseneck Spätlese GK sets the bar very high and is an incredible success.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits