Paul Anheuser, Niederhäuser Riesling

When you taste the explosion of savory fruit and distinct Nahe minerality in today’s brilliant 2003 Riesling, one thought will occur: You’ll wish you’d scooped up more, especially when recalling you paid just over a dollar for each year it matured in Anheuser’s pitch-black cellar. For some time now, we’ve feasted on Paul Anheuser’s secret trove of library releases—even a 50-year-old Auslese—but when it comes to affordability, this must be considered for the first-place podium. For one, 14 consecutive generations of Anheusers have farmed the steep slopes of Germany’s Nahe, making them one of the world’s most seasoned and prestigious wine families. Secondly, today’s exceptional Riesling is a blend of their estate vines within a single village (Niederhäusen). And thirdly, 18 years of undisturbed maturation has turned a lush, off-dry Riesling into a multi-dimensional, wickedly savory treat. There’s a reason sommeliers lose their minds over mature Riesling values, but it’s all-out chaos whe