Boxler 1996 Riesling Sommerberg “L31E” (Alsace) – Bracing. Gorgeously semi-mature, its metals golden and its acids rounder but still crystal-clear as they pierce the wine’s heart. What residual sugar there once might have been (I no longer recall the wine in its youth) is now no more than a slightly clouded polish on the shiny core, though it would be difficult to say that the wine presents as “dry”…its aspect is too lavish for that. (11/11)
Browse Tag
riesling
Apátsági, with a chance of more rain
Apátsági “Pannonhalmi” 2006 Rajnai Rizling (Hungary) – There’s an easy, almost effortless, quality to riesling from certain places that leads one to believe that even when it’s not great, it’s at least decent. It’s important to remember, however, that a fair bit of that is due to curation from importers and the like, and truly worldwide door-to-door explorations won’t always lead to similar success.
Here’s a wine that I want to like, but really don’t, and the primary reason distills to boredom. This is recognizable as something within the riesling family, but it trumpets neither fundamental rieslingness nor a powerful sense of place (identified not by its specifics – I lack experience with the site whence these grapes come – but by the muddled and generally uninteresting way in which this wine expresses itself). Neither here nor there, writ aqueous. (1/12)
Terrassen match
Tegernseerhof 2008 Terrassen Riesling (Wachau) – Is this difficult because it’s tight or because it’s not very good? It is certainly reduced, which doesn’t help, but grapefruit rind – unleavened and unadorned by aught else – is not sufficient for both foundation and glass house. (1/12)
Meyer
St. Urbans-Hof “Urban” 2010 Riesling (Mosel) – Step into the sulfurous cloud. Emerge a while later, a bit shaken but still on your feet. Pick up the paint-a-riesling-by-the-numbers canvas in front of you, and start painting. Done? Good job. Your colors are a bit thin, but they’re all correct. (1/12)
Victory
Boxler 2009 Riesling Sommerberg “L31V” (Alsace) – Tasted next to a Trimbach CFE, this tastes lavish. Of course, it’s the more restrained of Boxler’s two crus, though there’s plenty of difference between the different coded bottlings from each site, and this is a full-throated, powerful expression from a year that emphasizes both, everything ripe and very nearly explosive. It’s frankly huge for a Boxler Sommerberg of any sub-designation, with a fair bit of residual sugar, and though the trademark house balance is here, it’s just barely here. I think everything will turn out rather better than alright in the distant day of this wine’s full maturity, but it’s going to be someone needed an occasional check-in. (1/12)
Acute problem
Trimbach 2002 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – The 2000, 2001, and 2002 vintages at Trimbach are quite the epic trilogy, and like 1988-1990 before them each has its own character. It’s still very early days for the 2002 (there are few houses about which one can say that for a riesling at age nine), and the differences between it and the 2001 are clearer than they were just a few years ago. Headier than its slightly older brother, driven as much by body as by pointed intensity, yet no less forceful, the 2002 is going to drink a lot better, sooner, than the 2001 ever has. But I think it will reward just as much aging, ending up as a somewhat rounder form of the molten iron that is all great CFEs’ destiny. (1/12)
Chehalem, which hunt?
Chehalem 2009 Dry Riesling “Reserve” (Willamette Valley) – Surprisingly vibrant up front, solid in the middle, but it tails off into confusion. Ripe, well-buffed crystalline minerality, fruit more of the pear than apple realm, and nicely balanced. If that finish could just be brought into coherence, they’d have something here. (1/12)
Juff & Puff
Fritz Haag 2002 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett 3 03 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Occasionally expressive, more often muted, and this is one of the latter. There’s really nothing to do but wait and hope against mounting evidence that there was something wrong with a fair number of the quantity that I bought. (12/11)
Tire-ing
Firestone 2009 Riesling (Central Coast) – Yep, tastes like riesling. Off-dry riesling. Not really much more to say about it, aside from the somewhat chemical turn it takes as it lingers. (11/11)
Just a Wegeler guy
Wegeler 1999 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 02 001 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Thai riesling (lemongrass, Makrut lime leaf, palm sugar), with the texture but not the taste of coconut cream. Very intense, very sweet, but as certain omissions in the list of Thai referents might suggest, somewhat acid-deficient. It’s not flabby, but there’s no respite for its thickness nor its sugar. Is it ready? Well, it’s not falling apart, but I’m dubious that more time is going to lead to anything measurably better. (11/11)