| THE FINAL ARRIVAL OF 2020 give the gift of very, very old age this holiday season |
| This bottle occupies a fascinating place. While the wine has remained largely unknown to even some serious collectors, to the few who have tasted it and know about it, Stein’s “1900” bottling is considered one of the top wines of the Mosel, period. This is a vineyard of cultural importance, a historic site, the second-oldest producing Riesling vineyard in the Mosel with just over 1,000 vines, all of them ungrafted, planted in the year 1900 (thus the name of the cuvée). We have been eagerly awaiting the 119th edition of this wine all year, not only because of the acclaim of the vintage but because of the truly revelatory quality of Stein’s 2019ers. For us, in our strange little world, the release of this wine is one of the most important events of any year. The fact that the 2019 has been slated to arrive in the U.S. on exactly December 30th we are taking as a sign of better times to come: another gift the new year will give us. At about $70 a bottle, this is, as is nearly everything at Stein, an incredible deal, a fair and true price for one of the Mosel’s rarest wines. Give yourself the gift of very, very old age this holiday season! Keep in mind this is the perfect gift for .0037% of the population – so give the gift of old age to someone you know! |
Although the bottle itself won’t be available until January, if you did want to send this bottle as a gift, just email us a proof of purchase and we will send, as a complimentary service of eccentric reverence, a “Stein 1900” gift card to the recipient so they’ll have something to hold, an acknowledgement of all that is holy, delicious and true in this world. (We’d be happy to also just email you a personalized PDF you can print out yourself.) See below for all the details.
The tiny “1900” vineyard is only about a quarter of a hectare and Stein tends it like a garden. He knows every vine as an individual. Every vine has its own name; he speaks to them. The wine is fermented in neutral barrel and Stein allows it to find its own balance. Thus we have in 2019 a wine with the density and heft of a Spätlese, yet with only about 17 grams residual sugar. Combined with the powerful acids of 2019, the wine feels somewhere between Feinherb and nearly dry.
Tasting notes are hard in this case; wines of this density and extract need time, obviously. Collin tasted the wine in Germany soon after its bottling in October, relating that it is incredibly dense, very reserved and structured. For those of you who might may have had the good luck to taste the 2017 (one of the greatest young wines I have ever tasted), we may have a worthy successor with 2019: time will tell.
The only thing we can say for certain is this: by the time we know how great this is, it will be long, long sold out.
Now is the moment.
And now is also the moment for thanks and our most heartfelt warm wishes. Your support has kept us, very literally, going this year. It has kept us safe this scary year, and it has kept our growers and their families busy, nurturing some of the steepest, most beautiful, and oldest vineyards of Europe. We wish you a warm and safe holiday season.
To order, simply email orders@vomboden.com!
If you are in the business and would like wholesale pricing, please let us know.
2019 Stein Riesling Hölle “1900” ~$70 retail
If you would like to give the gift of very, very old age this holiday season, here’s all you have to do:
> email us and we can put you in touch with a retailer that can fulfill your order!
> email us your receipt, a proof of purchase
> email us the name and address of the person you are gifting, along with how many bottles you are sending them, by Monday, December 21st, noon EST and we will mail out, that same day, your Stein gift card!
> please note we guarantee we will mail all gift cards on Monday; we cannot guarantee arrival before the 25th of December
> you can also just print out a PDF we can email you!