06/12/2025
Nobody lacks self-discipline like us at Metrovino. We make valiant attempts at restraint, but you’d never know it given the fact that we import 80+ disparate German Riesling labels each vintage. Despite its amorphous parameters, every year we encounter phenomenal wines in our travels that don’t fit neatly into our bloated “portfolio”. When a brief encounter with such a wine makes clear that a future without it would be impoverished, empty and meaningless, we import said wine for reasons of emotion — regardless of its lack of glass-pour potential at restaurants or inherent appeal to trophy hunters. (Yes, these wines often dwell in that strange financial purgatory that's beyond most restaurants’ BTG budgets, yet affordable enough to be regarded with suspicion by the many who assume that exceptional quality only correlates with lavish spending).
Consider this a plight to celebrate beauty in the world, and to encourage more of it. The last thing that we want to do, dear reader, is to dismiss a significant winegrowing achievement with apathy, in turn denying you a singular drinking experience. So without further ado, here’s our third offer in the “Leave No Beautiful Riesling Behind” series.
2023 Wagner-Stempel Riesling 'Porphyr'
$40 (reg. $49)
Wagner-Stempel's liquid postcard from Siefersheim is named "Porphyr" after the volcanic soil. The vast majority of their Riesling vines are planted in two historically-celebrated Grand Cru vineyards, namely Heerkretz and Höllberg, and the Porphyr bottling is a declassification from these sites.
It's abundantly complex, the aromas functioning like an angelic chorus of disparate but intricately-connected notes that unfold in beguiling unison. In fact, this exudes what I've come to know as the very definition of Porphyr — a combination of purity, breathtaking definition and scintillating depths of aroma and flavour that have everything to do with intricacy but very little to do with delicacy. It’s simultaneously elegant and intense.
Read the entire article and order Porphyr in the link in bio.