94 / 100 Robert Parker The 2015 Felsenberg Riesling GG is from volcanic soils and a more narrow part of the valley where the fog stays longer than in Bockenau or Monzingen, so that the smoother skin leads Tim to an earlier picking. The wine opens very precise and flinty, but also fruity, with some yeasty flavors. It seems to be darker or more smoky flavored than the corresponding Kupfergrube. On the palate, this is a rich, very concentrated, precise and piquant Riesling with a long and intense aftertaste. The wine combines its ripe apple flavors with flinty aromas and shows great grip and salinity. The grapes were picked at lower potential alcohol levels than five years ago, but they were still ripe and rich enough for another impressive grand cru from Tim Fröhlich.
For Tim Fröhlich, 2015 was "an uncomplicated, picture book vintage that we would take every year." Indeed, his Rieslings are characterized by full ripeness, intense fruit flavors, precision, finesse and vitality. "The wines taste like the grapes we picked," said Tim. "To me, 2015 is the finest vintage of my career. Even more, there is almost no chance to top these wines I fear..."
According to Tim, the rainfalls were distributed perfectly in 2015: "The grapes were ripe and the acidity was perfect, too. The resulting wines display precise fruit flavors and have a great concentration... The cold autumn nights were crucial to keep the freshness and acidity, whereas we received the ripeness earlier. We rarely had an autumn where we kept the grapes on the vines that long! Botrytis was perfect. But, we had so many healthy grapes! We picked raisins without botrytis, so as a result, we have a great precision even in the noble sweet wines. This is due to the thin skins of the golden-yellow Riesling berries, especially in the Halenberg and Felseneck where the grapes were concentrated in between days. The perfect conditions lead to shorter maceration times. The wines had power and structure enough, there was absolutely no need to adjust anything." 228 WA, 30.12.2016
