2018 Frank John Riesling Pfalz 750 ml

Our friend, Master Sommelier Vincent Morrow, runs the wine program at Napa Valley’s PRESS restaurant, home to perhaps the world’s broadest and deepest collection of Napa Valley wine. 

Aside from Champagne, there’s next to nothing on Vincent’s list that isn’t tied to Napa Valley. But the last time we went in to see him, after we asked him to bring us something special, he disappeared into the cellar—and returned with a bottle that can’t be found on PRESS’s 245-page list. 

It was the 2018 Frank John Riesling from Pfalz, Germany. 

Frank John is one of the most accomplished (if anonymous) biodynamic and organic consultants in the world. A veteran of several big-name wineries in Germany, he now drives—never flies—all over Europe, guiding wineries in Mosel, the Rhône, Spain, Austria, and beyond in full biodynamic conversions and regenerative agriculture. 

The devoutness that Frank teaches is reflected in the work he, and increasingly his son Sebastian, do in Pfalz—which is warmer and drier than Mosel, akin to Alsace. They own 13 plots that total just three acres, and they do all the work themselves, working on a crushpad that used to be their driveway, fermenting the wines without temperature control in 225-3,000–liter Stockinger barrels. 

The Johns use only native yeast and add no sulfur, and their devotion to process is visible in every step of the process, from their cleaning tartrates out of barrels with a hose and brush to chastising visitors, Vincent and Angela included, for letting the water run a bit too long in the kitchen sink. 

The result of all this obsession: one of the finest Rieslings we’ve tasted anywhere near this price.