“Precise and delicious.” – Vinous

Gather up fans of Öömrang and the like… it’s Riesling Thursday!

Maybe that opening quote is for this bone-dry Grand Cru from Alsace, but it applies to all the small lots of Germans we’ve stocked the Store with today, while they last. There is a reason why wine professionals from top Sommeliers to Masters of Wine all gush about the merits of Riesling. They offer laser-like precision with such tautly drawn focus that there’s magical transparency and purity to their fruit and a mineral intensity that lingers on and on…

Today, at over 60% off, is your chance to snatch up a stunning 94-95 point example from what Vinous calls “definitely a Domaine to watch.”

If you aren’t familiar, Alsace is a truly magical place – one of the most beautiful wine regions on earth. Tucked in the Northeast corner of France on the German border, it has a culture that shares the best of both worlds. Its hills are dotted with technicolor, picturesque villages like something out of a Disney fairytale. But, for all its enchantment, it’s developed a bit of a reputation for being overly traditional.

Enter Amélie & Charles Sparr. Both are part of winemaking families that go back many generations in Alsace. But despite hundreds of years of ancestral know-how, they are at the forefront of modern viticulture and vinification. As Vinous remarked about the duo, “Alsace, however, is in great need of more up-and-coming youngsters that change the perception of this appellation from within.”

Fortunately for us, Amélie & Charles are still off the grid of most enthusiasts. Were they a bit more famous, like iconoclast Marcel Deiss ($115+ for his Schoenenbourg), we wouldn’t be able to offer it for anywhere near this price!

Popping the cork on this Grand Cru fully reveals their enthusiasm for the nuance and finesse of the region’s terroir. Schoenenbourg is one of the top sites for Riesling, not just in Alsace, but in the world. It has been famous since the Middle Ages, and Voltaire himself invested in a few acres around the time of the Revolutionary War. It’s famous for a reason. Located on a steep slope above the village of Riquewhir, the site’s combination of Southern exposure and gypsum soils lends the wine a broad mouthfeel and richness of fruit to contrast its racy acidity and smoky, mineral-driven finish. It is a wine that can be contemplated on its own, but pairs with a wide variety of foods (seriously, we plan on stocking up on a few cases for the holidays!).

Also - with its structure and complexity, it can easily mature – building depth and richness – for three decades and beyond! Seriously, how many bottles under $30 can you say that about?!

If you can’t tell, we are incredibly excited about this wine! Pick up a few cases, some for the holidays, some for the cellar, while you can. You will be over the moon that you did!!!

94-95 Points – Vinous “Charles Sparr is the eighth generation of the Sparr family in Alsace. His ancestor Pierre Sparr initially arrived from Germany in 1820. Sparr’s descendants founded the big négociant business Charles Sparr in 1892, which traded until 2007, when it was sold to the cooperative in Beblenheim. The current Charles Sparr was in the middle of his oenological studies in Beaune and had just returned from a stage working for Mumm Napa/Pernod Ricard in California. Sparr’s grandfather asked him to return home to Alsace, and Sparr said he would on the condition that he could convert the vineyards to organic farming. Sparr’s first harvest was in 2010. He met his wife Amélie Buecher in the same year while she was running Domaine Buecher-Fix with 8 hectares/20 acres of vineyards. In 2017, when Sparr’s family Domaine was certified organic and biodynamic by Ecocert and Demeter, respectively, the couple united the two Domaines and named their new 19-hectare/47-acre-estate Amélie & Charles Sparr. They have holdings in Hengst, Brand, Mambourg, Furstentum, Sporen and Schoenenbourg Grand Crus and in the Altenbourg and Rosenberg lieux-dits, which Sparr refers to as their premiers crus. The wines are precise and delicious, by one of the most ambitious new estates to emerge in Alsace. The 2021 Schoenenbourg Grand Cru spent 12 months in foudre and four months in stainless steel. Grown in the gypsum soils, it opens with a rich sense of melted butter that for now masks any fruit. The palate is a different story. While the butter still features aromatically, the body of the wine is precise, laser-like, cool, bone-dry, direct. It comes with an urgency of freshness that speaks of the cool soil, but then, as if to remind us, it references ripe pear, before reverting to the chalky, cool depths that are expressed as deep saltiness. Uncompromising and thrilling. Drink 2027-2060.”

94 Points – James Suckling “A bold and compact dry Riesling with stacks of candied pineapple and lemon character. Only medium-bodied but with an imposing structure, this is only just beginning to show its true depths. This is already delicious, but try to be patient. From 60-year-old vines. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.”