Willi Schaefer 2004 Riesling 01 05 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Still fresh, crisp, lightly sweet, and fun, though there’s the beginning of a skin-bitter edge to the juicy apple fruit. Drink soonish, I think. (2/08)
mosel-saar-ruwer
Piesporter creek
St. Urbans-Hof 2005 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Auslese 26 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Gorgeous sweetness, crisp-ripe rapple, green grapes. Balanced and incredibly acidic, but the weight of the fruit more than makes up for it. Clear and crystalline finish. Gorgeous. (2/07)
Piesporter control
St. Urbans-Hof 2005 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese 13 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Flowers, banana, papaya. Very youthful. (2/07)
Laurentiuslay Stallone
St. Urbans-Hof 2005 Leiwener Laurentiuslay Riesling Spätlese feinherb 28 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Ripe and sweet green apple, elegant, soft, yet very long, with hidden concentration. There’s a great future here. (2/07)
Doc Ock Bock
St. Urbans-Hof 2005 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett 14 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Sulfur, melon, and gravel. Clean and hard. Like a waterfall over rocks. (2/07)
Keith & Dennis
St. Urbans-Hof 2006 Riesling 45 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Banana cream, strawberry, and Rainier cherry. Not my kind of riesling. (2/07)
40 acres & a Meulenhof
Meulenhof 1998 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese 06 99 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – At first crack, the petrol is rather severe. This dissipates quickly, however, leaving just a bit of petroleum alongside a crisply acidic palate with balancing bits of sweetness and skin bitterness. (1/08)
Willi the wimp
Willi Schaefer 1994 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese 06 95 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Blood orange and metal with mild but impossible-to-ignore oxidation, big acidity, and caramel on the finish. Damaged in at least one, and possibly more than one, way…cork, heat, premox? Maybe a little of each? (1/08)
Juffer, me later
Haag 2002 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett 3 03 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Weird for a good 24 hours, after which it’s still a bit odd, showing a light char to its ripe, red fruit core of intense sweetness paired with fiery, slightly burning acidity. Heat-damaged and closed, perhaps? I’ve got more, so we’ll see. (12/07)
Short names, vol. 1
JP Reinert 2005 Wiltinger Schlangengraben Riesling Spätlese feinherb 08 06 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Intense and primary. Crystals abound (organoleptically, not visually), while apple, lemongrass and a very light sweetness add their voices to the chorus. The finish is strikingly long for its rigidity; this is a wine that does not change. I think it’s going to be terrific, someday, but right now it’s a laser beam of youthful simplicity with a quartz rod rammed through its spine. (9/07)