2019 Dr. Thanisch Erben Müller-Burggraef Riesling Kabinett Bernkasteler Badstube Mosel 750 ml

The iconic, nearly 400-year-old Dr. Thanisch winery makes Germany’s most prestigious and expensive wine, a $1300 Riesling from the Bernkasteler Doctor vineyard that’s the stuff of auction myth. Those vines are close enough to cast a literal shadow on the adjacent Bernkasteler Badstube vineyard, where this wine is made. 

It’s a Riesling Kabinett, just off-dry—what locals refer to in English as “fruity,” as opposed to “sweet.” It’s also a critical darling, a standout that exemplifies the crystalline, pure, barely sweet perfection that made the Mosel so famous worldwide. And at a humble price, it exudes every bit of the joyful intensity that hallmarks a Dr. Thanisch wine. 

Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, and James Suckling each gave it a 92-point score, with Wine Enthusiast marking it as an Editors’ Choice. They’d be fools to give it anything less. It’s the rare bottle that’s at home on almost any table and with any meal, from a simple ceviche to slow-stewed lamb saag. For our members who know how to elevate a casual dinner, this is not a wine to pass up. 

Succulent stone fruit and earthy herbs open the nose of this glass and yield to a flash of smoke and sea salt. Lime and slate take over, and a mouthwatering mid-palate, drawing on a featherlight sweetness. This wine's got legs and it’s nimble, with just enough heft to feel each sip pushing back.

As Wine Advocate put it, the wine’s “complexity, grip and tension” give it a sophistication that’s hard to find in a bottle meant to crack now and relish often.

Winemaker Maximilian Ferger leverages a holistic vision in managing some of Germany’s most prized sites. Marrying the estate’s long history with its progressive vision, he led the charge in building a new state-of-the-art winery in 2015. That expansion allows him to work more sensitively, pressing more gently over a longer period of time and respecting the wines’ individuality, rather than adapting them to a single system. 

Maximilian favors look, feel, and taste more than the formal data of organic chemistry. He says that approach helps him better time his harvests and more carefully tailor the pick-and-press process for each wine. Ultimately, we’ve tasted what’s happened over the past few years—it’s driven a quality shift, especially at the entry level.

Dr. Thanisch is one of the world’s most revered white wine estates. Here they make a daily drinker from mature vines, which share rock and sun with one of the world’s most mythical parcels. It’s detailed, fine, and a delightfully fruity expression of the middle Mosel at its best.