A morning along the Rhine recently took me to visit both Felix Peters at St. Antony (and Heyl zu Herrnsheim) in Nierstein as well as Hans Oliver Spanier at Battenfeld-Spannier (and Kühling-Gillot) in Hohen-Sülzen, two of the young producers who have made Rheinhessen such a dynamic region over the past few years. The old guard along the Rheinfront literally vanished into thin air and left the Wonnegau, where Klaus Peter Keller and Philip Wittmann play first fiddle, the time to establish its reputation. While Oliver Spanier is now slowly evolving from his erstwhile monumental style towards elegance, Felix Peters has taken a bold step to reinvent the Rheinfront and fermented all of his Pettenthal grand cru in smaller wooden barrels, not in the casks pictures here. Granted, only one of them was new, but I would not have had the courage to do this…or at least done so in shorter steps over a number of years. While I must say 2011 plays well to this style, the wine is far more impressive than I would have ever have thought. Comments