2024 Emrich-Schonleber - Niederberg Kabinett (750ml)

This is the Grand Cru sites with what I think is the greatest name out there – pronounced “Froooh-lings-PLATS-shen.” Go ahead and say it, it’ll make you feel good. It translates, roughly, to “little place of spring.” While the Halenberg is the denser, more monumental wine, with likely more stuffing and structure to age longer, I’ll admit the Frühlingsplätzchen is my favorite. There, I said it. I just love the soaring aromatics, the sharpness of the wine, the linear lightness and delicacy. They are rarely about fruit as much as they are about a saline quality, mineral and flower. This is a superb, superb GG that dances on the palate like a good old Spätlese Trocken… even Kabinett Trocken? 

Importer notes (Vom Boden)

The Halenberg is often considered, along with the Auf der Ley (offered only through the German auctions) the most structured and densest and most monumental of the Grand Crus from Schönleber. It is certainly a stony and dense wine; there is always more weight, more push and depth to the Halenberg. If the Frühlingsplätzchen is a dancer, the Halenberg is a monolith – its power is its presence, and vice-versa. In youth there is both more fruit and more mineral, compared to Frühlingsplätzchen. This is one of the most statuesque and substantial GGs out there, perhaps akin to Keller’s Morstein in density and structure.

Compared to the Frühlingsplätzchen, the Halenberg is rounder and riper – at least on first opening. There is more depth, more raw and pushing citrus fruit; the register feels more yellow than green. On the palate too, while the minimalist aesthetic of Schönleber is there, the wine feels more textural, both more fruity and more mineral. On day two the wine goes full 360 and shuts down completely: the nose is like smelling the cold purity of space (albeit with maybe a tinge of Meyer lemon?) It is haunting and the reputation of the wine begins to make sense only after 24+ hours open, holy hell. This is a brilliant wine, severe, coating, dense with concentration. Wow. This is an immense wine that needs hours/days to unfurl if you are drinking sooner and will certainly age for a decade or two or longer.

-Importer notes (Vom Boden)