Browse Tag

spätlese

Zelt up

[vineyard]Selbach-Oster 2007 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese “Schmitt” 020 08 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Electric green apple soda. Lightly sweet, with makrut lime lacings. Flawless balance and poise. A really gorgeous wine. Wow! (12/08)

To heck with the cherry

Dönnhoff 2003 Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spätlese 005 04 (Nahe) – Tangerine fatness at first sniff, which firms up to a long, columnar midpalate with only a little clinging fat. The finish is short. Everything in this wine happens way up front, and while it’s not bad for an ’03, it’s a little like a tin recreation of a riesling rather than the real thing. Eh. (12/08)

Rottland hum

Leitz 2007 Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling Spätlese Trocken “Alte Reben” (Goldkapsel) 014 08 (Rheingau) – Tastes Austrian, in a diffident sort of way. Not particularly precise, but instead rather creamy, with intensity and power both present and in reserve. A solid block of riesling. Let it age. (12/08)

Goodstube, Badstube

Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler 2007 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese 017 08 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Deceives with simplicity, but peering into the wine’s innards results in a rather stern return glare from dark, coal-like minerality and amber-encased golden raspberries. Still very young, obviously. The finish could be longer. (12/08)

Georgetown, BC, St. Joe’s…

[label]Spreitzer 2007 Winkeler Jesuitengarten Riesling Spätlese 025 08 (Rheingau) – Light petroleum and smoky coal (get some uranium in there, and this wine will have quite the power-generating capacity), plus sweet banana. Ripe, with great acidity (thankfully, since the wine is very sweet). The finish sorta lingers, but doesn’t really develop. Still, there’s a lot to like here. (12/08)

Miniminer

[label]Carl Schmitt-Wagner 2007 Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese Feinherb 03 08 (Mosel) – Lightly petrol-skinned. Feels clean, round, and dry. Fairly insignificant now, but the finish is strikingly long and at a steady volume throughout, so there might be more here to find as the wine ages. Or maybe not. (12/08)

Osterizer

[label]Selbach-Oster 2007 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 009 08 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Very dense. Makrut lime, green apple, pear…and then dark, brooding coal underneath. A massive wine – certainly much larger than a spätlese should probably be, but then that’s the modern paradigm isn’t it? – but while it’s heavy, it’s balanced and long, and should age beautifully. (12/08)

Krötenpfuhl moon

Dönnhoff 2006 Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Riesling Spätlese 09 07 (Nahe) – Petrol and wet soil, naked and yet refreshed by balanced sweetness. Still, this lacks the precision and definition I’d like; it’s a good wine, but not a very good wine. (6/08)

Give it to me Haardter

[towerMüller-Catoir 1998 Haardter Bürgergarten Riesling Spätlese 19 99 (Pfalz) – My regular M-C source has brought so many rieslaners, scheureben, and muskatellers of late that I’d almost forgotten they make riesling. This wine stirs the memory in quite a hurry. If lemon-lime could be crystallized and calcified, this is what they’d taste like, with shattered crystals in electrified water the dominant textural component. There’s no lack of apple sculpted from granite, either, but to me this wine is like drinking a chandelier explosion. Striking. (8/08)

Here comes the Sonnenuhr

JJ Prüm 1998 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 5 00 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Still sulfurous, though no longer undrinkably so, and while it’s developing a good portion of cream and gentility, it’s not budging much in the direction of aromatic maturity. No surprise there. (8/08)