Browse Tag

riesling

Injured Réserve

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – This ubiquitous négociant riesling is sourced from vineyards stretched…and it’s quite a stretch…between Thann and St-Hippolyte; if an umbrella Haut-Rhin appellation existed, this would qualify. Raw steel (as always), but unusually full-fruited, with nice length. It’s pretty primary. (5/06)

Trimbach 2003 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – From vineyards of marl and calcaire, all estate-owned. Slightly sweet, aromatically-speaking, with softened edges around an extremely solid core. All rock all the time, just now, and reasonably lengthy. Overall, it has to be one of the most successful 2003s I’ve tasted from this region. But that still doesn’t make me love it. There’s enough of interest to make me wonder what might happen in a decade, but I doubt it has sufficient acid to last that long, nor do I know that it has the raw materials to develop useful complexity. I guess we’ll see. (5/06)

Amy Pfoeller

Meyer-Fonné 2005 Riesling Pfoeller (Alsace) – Really terrific, with pear leaves and sandstone-textured minerality wrapped in crisp malic acidity and a bell-tone of balancing sweetness. Very floral and long, with obvious aging potential. (1/08)

Pay the premium

Selaks “Premium Selection” 2006 Riesling (Marlborough) – Dry, dusty, and extremely austere on the nose. The palate, however, is a lot more interesting, showing a moment of cream followed by the sharp bite of sour orange acidity, grapefruit rind bitterness, and walnut skin. There’s good length, and while the wine “feels” mostly dry, a bit of residual sugar is there if you look hard enough…a grace note of softening sweetness at the end. A fair effort, though probably not with the complexity or stuffing to age more than a few years. (5/07)

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)

David

[label]Brooks 2005 Riesling (Willamette Valley) – Acidic with a bite of tannin, showing clean and intense apple skin and lemongrass with a bite of squeezed grapefruit. Simple and direct throughout. I’d like more complexity, but maybe that will come. (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)

How dry I am

Glover’s 2003 “Dry” Riesling (Moutere) – From Kahurangi Estate’s grapes. Those things get around, don’t they? In any case, despite the iconoclasm, this is a much better interpretation than anything from the source winery, with massive minerality unfortunately muffled by reduction, white pepper, and salt. Sharp and quite “wet”-tasting (by which I suppose I mean juicily acidic), this clearly needs time. The wine would appear to have a potentially good future, but I do worry that once all the sheathing is eroded by time, the core will be too severe for its own good. However, that’s a pure guess. Maybe this is (or rather, will be) terrific. I just can’t tell. (3/05)

Frozen

Glover’s 2003 Riesling “Icewine” (Moutere) – A flat nose of sweet, simple apple. Short and disappointing. Given the originality shown elsewhere in this lineup, I expected this most idiosyncratic of wines to be better. Alas, it’s not. (3/05)

Richmond district

Glover’s 1997 “Late Harvest” Riesling (Richmond) – Creamy and definitely entering its mature phase, with thick minerality and salted lemon. I can’t decide if this is more like an ultra-dense (but old-style, not powerfully sweet and overripe as in the modern idiom) spätlese or…I don’t know, perhaps a Rheingau halbtrocken auslese. What I do know is that it’s big, crystalline, and thoroughly delicious. I’ve had many quality New Zealand rieslings – some I’d even call “better” – but I’ve never had one quite like this. (3/05)

Glover’s 2002 “Late Harvest” Riesling (Richmond) – Strikingly mineral-driven, salty, and almost smoky, with a good balance between sweet and dry. The finish is a bit shorter than one might like, but nothing to panic about. (3/05)