2023 Weingut Schafer-Frohlich Riesling Vulkangestein Trocken Nahe 750 ml

Tim Fröhlich is an absolute wizard with Riesling.

He’s one of the top handful of winemakers in Germany, with a mountain of acclaim and rabid fans across the globe—and it’s pretty clear that his talent is innate, not just learned: He became the winemaker at his family’s estate at the age of 21, and Schäfer-Fröhlich nearly immediately vaulted up into the stratosphere. 

When he took over the Fröhlich family winery, the vineyards around their town, Bockenau, were unknown to wine-lovers—but these days, it’s a given that Schäfer-Fröhlich’s Grosses Gewächs (Grand Cru) bottlings will easily sell for over $100. That’s thanks to unusual dedication in the vineyards, his innate ability to coax magical complexity out of grapes, and also the decision to focus on dry wines long before it was fashionable to do so.

His Vulkangestein (volcanic-soil) bottling is a glimpse into Fröhlich’s magic that’s sourced entirely from two Grosses Gewächs sites: Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg and Bockenauer Stromberg. Felsenberg is a powerhouse of a site, with plenty of intensity and a smokey, bass-heavy fruit tonality. By contrast, the wines from Stromberg always carry a salinity and lyrical grace to it, all with a firm spine—it’s the steepest vineyard Fröhlich works and that shows in this wine's structure. 

Made resolutely dry, this is basically the younger-drinking GG lots from the winery. It’s a brilliant partner with all manner of food at the table. We love it with anything from grilled sausages to roasted salmon, but our friends at the Michelin-two-star restaurant Ever in Chicago use it as a brilliant pairing for their coconut soup, which mirrors the Riesling’s combination of lushness and brightness in the form of coconut, lemongrass, and makrut lime.