Sometimes a wine strikes at the core of being. It reveals the elemental truths of grape and place. This is one of those wines. Not a bottle intentionally left to nearly age 20, it just happened to be passed over for seven years since the last one. The inner core is sculpted stone, the patina is honey and gentle spice.
A few sips, and I am taken back in time to a dinner long ago with friends. We drank aged Alsatian and German Rieslings side by side, and found a convergence. Both the French and the German wine had been stripped to their core. They were essence of Riesling, the greatest wine in revealing the marriage of grape and place.
This wine fits in that same tasting, that same conversation. It is clearly, and indisputably Riesling. It is also clearly of a place, expressing stone, ripe fruit and a bracing acidity that can only be from Germany. At nearly twenty years of age it demonstrates that it has decades to tell its story. Sadly my last bottle, but a rewarding and revealing experience.
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not blind golden colour. At his peak. Ripe yellow stone fruits. good aciidty but for a 2001 it could be fresher and leaner. Dried fruits and lemon. biscuity and some peach. 92
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Dinner @ Salil's (Vernon, CT): This bottle seemed a bit off. Still drinkable, but flat, dull and lacking vibrancy. Perhaps a bit of dirt and perhaps a bit corked. Tough to tell on this one.
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interesting bottle...now I realize that this was trocken...not sure how a spatlese is trocken but that explains lack of sweetnes...duh....excellent nicely aged riesling and laser sharp and cool on a warm evening
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1/19/2021 - Rieslingfan wrote:
Sometimes a wine strikes at the core of being. It reveals the elemental truths of grape and place. This is one of those wines. Not a bottle intentionally left to nearly age 20, it just happened to be passed over for seven years since the last one. The inner core is sculpted stone, the patina is honey and gentle spice.
A few sips, and I am taken back in time to a dinner long ago with friends. We drank aged Alsatian and German Rieslings side by side, and found a convergence. Both the French and the German wine had been stripped to their core. They were essence of Riesling, the greatest wine in revealing the marriage of grape and place.
This wine fits in that same tasting, that same conversation. It is clearly, and indisputably Riesling. It is also clearly of a place, expressing stone, ripe fruit and a bracing acidity that can only be from Germany. At nearly twenty years of age it demonstrates that it has decades to tell its story. Sadly my last bottle, but a rewarding and revealing experience.
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10/13/2019 - aquacongas Likes this wine: 92 Points
not blind
golden colour. At his peak. Ripe yellow stone fruits. good aciidty but for a 2001 it could be fresher and leaner. Dried fruits and lemon. biscuity and some peach. 92
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5/25/2013 - salil wrote: flawed
Corked. Seemed slightly off the first night, leftovers the next day reeked of TCA.
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5/25/2013 - Rieslingfan wrote: flawed
Corked perhaps. Certainly not representative.
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5/25/2013 - mdefreitas wrote: flawed
Dinner @ Salil's (Vernon, CT): This bottle seemed a bit off. Still drinkable, but flat, dull and lacking vibrancy. Perhaps a bit of dirt and perhaps a bit corked. Tough to tell on this one.
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6/16/2012 - Mr T wrote:
interesting bottle...now I realize that this was trocken...not sure how a spatlese is trocken but that explains lack of sweetnes...duh....excellent nicely aged riesling and laser sharp and cool on a warm evening
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3/12/2009 - Mr T wrote:
I only got some a day or 2 later. The trocken seemed to make for an interesting finish. Not sure I can really comment
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