Wittmann, Rheinhessen (Germany) Riesling Trocken 2017

 Only 100 cases of this sensational wine were made for the entire world, so you’ll need to be lucky to find a bottle.  Made from a VDP Grosse Lage (basically, Grand Cru, though there’s a long story behind this designation that would take us too far afield), this is the rare sort of wine that is pushing perfection upon release, and will continue to exhibit greatness in different ways as it ages over the next 15 or more years.  Wittmann Rieslings are, quite simply, the state of the art in Rheinhessen, showing wonderfully juicy, open fruit flavors that are so obviously delicious that the wines can be mistaken initially for being, well, obvious.  But they are not, as each successive sniff and sip demonstrates, with little aromatic and flavor nuances continuing to rise to the fore.  Similarly, the fruit-to-acid-to-mineral balance here is so close to perfect — and the wine so seamlessly integrated — that the wine could be mistaken initially for being monolithic.  But it is not, and the accents that emerge as the wine opens and warms demonstrate that definitively.  I’ll leave it at that, without detailing all the intricacies of aroma and flavor to be found in this wine, returning to my warning that you’ll need to be lucky to find a bottle.  If you do, let me assure you that you’ll feel very lucky indeed after paying up and starting to marvel at this object lesson in greatness.