2019 Weingut Josef Leitz Rudesheimer Riesling Spatlese

If you only buy one vintage of German Riesling this decade, make it 2019. Critics, collectors, and winemakers all agree: 2019 is the modern benchmark, a year where perfect ripeness met sky-high acidity. Now, seven years later, the wines are shedding their youthful edges and entering their absolute prime.

While Johannes Leitz is famous for his jagged, stony mountain wines (like the Dragonstone or Berg Schlossberg), the Magdalenenkreuz ("Maggie’s Cross") is a completely different beast. Sourced from the sandy loess and clay soils at the foot of the mountain, this vineyard produces wines of pure, unadulterated comfort. It doesn't have the sharp "slate" edges of the high slopes; instead, it offers a mouthful of ripe red apple, exotic fruit, and a creamy, generous texture.

At the Spätlese level, this wine is luscious and sweet, but because it is a 2019, that sugar is blasted by a laser beam of acidity. It tastes electric rather than heavy. At seven years old, the sugar has begun to melt into the fruit, creating a texture that feels like liquid velvet.