Extreme Dry – Extreme Age – Extreme Value
2012 Stein Palmberg Extreme Trocken
A late-release bottle sourced directly from the cellar, this wine comes from a vertigo-inspiring site filled with ungrafted vines roughly 100 years old.
Here is a bottle that is unlike any Mosel Rieslings you’ve likely had.
With its ruthless minerality, pungent salinity and profound herbal complexity, this Mosel Riesling has more to do with the flinty, gun-smoke, jagged Chardonnays of Chablis and Chitry – think of the brilliant wines of DeMoor filtered through the slate of the Mosel.
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Ulli Stein in the Palmberg |
Stein released Extreme later than most of his other bottlings and we've waited to do an offer for a while. The wine needed a little time to come into its own. But now, the cutting angles and shrieking acidity have been tempered. The result is a wine that balances brightness and vigor with a bit more finesse, the sharp edges having been polished to satin by time.
It is a thrilling combination. Especially in a top vintage such as 2012. This vintage represents one of the greatest of this young century, already famous for its balance, deep concentrations that remain focused and shaped by a muscular acidity.
Stein is not one for half-measures, farming some of the steepest sites and oldest vines in the Mosel. The Palmberg represents extreme everything. There is almost no residual sugar. The old, ungrafted vines cling to one of the Mosel’s steepest sites, the Palmberg. This is a holy place for Stein, and for us – the Palmberg has produced a Crush "Wine of the Year" in 2009. Stein’s father rebuilt most of the terraces by hand after the war and slowly brought it back to life.
This bottle also represents extreme value. When you factor in the quality of the vineyard, the age of vines, and the production (which involves scaling a veritable cliff of vines, harvesting by hand and meager yields) the price is crazy.
Palmberg Extreme is the most shocking bottle of Riesling we've tasted all year. Its punch, tension and dusty minerality leave a deep impression. This shouldn't be missed.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits