German and Austrian Reds

Can anyone recommend a few exceptional German or Austrian reds that can be purchased for less than $150/bottle?

My palate is typically Bordeaux, Burgundy, N Rhone, Barolo, and Brunello…

Plenty of excellent Keller spatburgunders for less than that price. Trick will be sourcing them.

Rudolf Furst.

I asked a few winemakers when I visited Germany this year, this name always came up.

Single vineyard Blaufränkischs by Moric and Schiefer are highly recommended and not crazy expensive. No idea about their availability in the US though…

Meanwhile there are a lot of good Spätburgunder in Germany thanks to climate change and the development to more freshness&finesse instead of oak&power which was the characteristics 10-15 years ago.

Here a litte selection (not always the best Spätburgunder of the estate, but really good ones and I guess more available). For example the best Spätburgunder for me is Keller “Morstein” but it is an auction wine. And also Fürst “Hundsrück” is certainly difficult to find in USA.

Top-Producer

Fürst “Centgrafenberg”
Huber “Wildenstein”
Keller “Bürgel”
F. Becker “St. Paul”
Rings “Saumagen”
Thörle “Hölle”
Schnaitmann “Lämmler”
Koch “Pinot Noir” Reserve
Stodden “Rosenthal”
Meyer-Näkel “Pfarrwingert”
Heger “Häusleboden”


Newcomer

Günther Steinmetz “Herrenberg”
Benedikt Baltes “Klingenberg”
Jülg “Pinot Noir”
Möbitz “Köpfle”
Wageck “Burgweg”
Gutzler “Morstein”
Siener “Kastanienbusch”


Certainly I have forgotten to mention several producer, anyway here we have a good start into the World of Spätburgunder.

Gin Gin,
Martin

Thanks Martin. Good list for me to explore. My limited experiences with Furst and Heger have been good.

The Moric wines are available here from WineMonger Imports, which also does DTC sales. https://winemonger.com/
And they carry Rosi Schuster wines, which are also quite good.
Tom

+1

I have a lot less experience than many but I really like Enderle and Moll.

Austrian red wine is more widely available in the US than German, and most is way under $150:

Wieninger is widely available and a very good producer of many varieties
Nittnaus has a few bottlings, of various qualities
Moric as mentioned, and the low-end Blaufränkisch is not only their best value but one of the better values of anyone
Umathum can be OK
Pfaffl does a pretty good St. Laurent
Pittnauer does a pretty good St. Laurent
Meinklang does a great value on pretty much everything - we go through cases of their Zweigelt and their Blaufränkisch is great too; IMO they are by far the best overall value on the list for anything they do, white or red
Bründlmayer is OK if you can find it, particularly their St. Laurent
Sattler is pretty available, OK, not brilliant from what I’ve had
Loimer has a few - they’re from near Vienna and are generally available
Markowitsch is fairly available
Prieler - a good contrast to Markowitsch
Uwe Schiefer

Some of these use more oak, some no oak, so try a few. Most do Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and St. Laurent, as well as various French grapes like Merlot, Cab Franc, Cab Sauvignon, etc. And a number of them are biodynamic and/or organic.

Some of my favorites (I’m not sure of your location so I included some wines that are not available in the US with an asterick):

Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Alte Reben*
Rudolf Fürst Hundsrück Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs
J.J. Adeneuer Walporzheimer Gärkammer Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs*
Meyer-Näkel Walporzheimer Kräuterberg Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs
Rudolf Fürst Schlossberg Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs
Rudolf Fürst Centgrafenberg Frühburgunder “R”*
Bernhard Huber Malterdinger Bienenberg Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs

VM

I had Meyer-Näkel’s base bottling of Spätburgunder from 2015 last week and it was quite good. Perhaps not $40 good, but a nice wine. I figured that '15 would be a good year for Ahr Spätburgunder because it was warm and the Ahr is the most northerly serious wine area in Germany.

When I visited the Ahr in 2016, all of the winemakers at Stodden, Adeneuer and Kreuzberg spoke very highly of the 2015 vintage and expected to make excellent wines.

VM

I’ll add Ziereisen as top notch and second Mobitz, Furst, Moric, and Enderle and Moll.

+1 - nice list and would add Keller Frauenberg which has been taken to the next level in last few vintages.

E&M and Ziereisen’s in particular are great gateway spats… E&M to me comes off a touch more traditional with red fruit and Ziereisen more modern which is a certain crowd pleaser.

Exceptional German Spätburgunder producers/bottlings that I import/have in stock, $29-109:
Fürst Centgrafenberg GG '15 (this is bonkers good)
Fürst Burgstadter Ortswein '15 (villages)
Fürst Schlossberg GG '13 (won best Spätburgunder of the vintage in the Gault Millau)
Fürst Burgstadter Berg Erste Lage '15 (1er cru)
Rings Saumagen GG '15
Rings Steinacker Erste Lage '15 (1er cru)
Rings Freinsheimer Ortswein '15 (villages)
Rings Kallstadter Ortswein '15 (villages)
Markus Molitor Schlossberg ** '14 (not called a GG, but Grand cru…again, reference point good)

Martin, what have your thoughts been on the '16 Spätburgunders? Have you tried the Fürst’s wines? Rings?
I think Stefan Steinmetz’s entry level wine is crazy crazy good in '14 and '15…maybe even better than the cru stuff…

Ernst Triebaumer and Paul Achs are two more excellent producers.

Austria also does excellent Pinot Noir (spatburgunder). You’d find it under either varietal name.

Yes! Forgot about Paul Achs - he made a wonderful Syrah too. Haven’t seen him in the US market for a while though.

Dear winelovers,

I strongly recommend to buy ALL Spätburgunder by Fürst from Robert Panzer. The wines are terrific and age beautifully.

In addition by some bottles of Rings, the rising star in Germany. Two young guys extremely talented.


Gin Gin,
Martin

I haven´t tasted so much 16´Spätburgunder, but from Rings. They got better from vintage to vintage. 4-5 years ago they were good, but a bit too modern for my taste. But now the Spätburgunder from Andi Rings and his brother are truly great and have this certain Burgundy touch which I really like. Clearly to see their ambition to get better and better and this is an attitude which I really like.

Yes, the entry level Spätburgunder from Stefan Steinmetz are WOW…I had the chance to taste ´14 and ´15 at the estate and was blown away by the quality and price. They are not better than the Cru stuff, but so much quality for little money.

Stefan is clearly a great Spätburgunder producer and totally under the radar even in Germany, as he is such well-known for his Rieslings.
In addition he is truly a character and has a beautiful wife&kids including a strong mother. haha