Selbach Oster Tasting at Liner and Elsen

Johannes Selbach was visiting from Germany, and I'm a huge fan of his wines, so this was a tasting I didn't want to miss. As usual, they delivered some wonderful wine at great price points along with some wonderful stories and insight into the wines themselves.

• 2007 Selbach-Oster Pinot Blanc trocken 89 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  This pinot blanc was harvested at spaetlese ripeness level, but wasn't classified as such on the bottle. The nose is awesome and full of pears, some green apples, and a hint of spices. On the palate, it's light and floral up front. As it evolves it becomes dusty and delivers some honey and pear flavors which trail off into a nice finish.

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• 2006 Selbach-Oster Pinot Blanc trocken 87 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Lots of green apple pie on the nose along with cinnamon and a hint of rainier cherries. Light green apples and some earthy notes appear on the palate, and some tangy fruit lingers for a bit.

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• 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett trocken 87 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Baked goods, green apples, and lilacs appear on the nose. The wine is quite light on the start with delicate hints of rich apple fruit lingering in the background. It's clean across the palate, and the acidity is strong and drys things out heavily at the end. 87+

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• 2006 Selbach-Oster Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese 91 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Lovely, rich peach scents with some exciting, sharp hints of rhubarb and green apple scents on the nose. The wine delivers a hint of petrol rolling around in glorious, rich, ripe but not over-ripe peach flavors. The acidity is lovely and leaves cuts through everything eventually leaving you with a mouth watering and dusty finish. 91+

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• 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese * 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  The wine smells of smoke and baked apples. It's light all the way through the palate with an even acidity that runs out nicely on the finish. Some green apple flavors come through on the finish as well, which persists for 30s! After tasting it for a while, a bit of ripe pear flavors come through as well.

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• 2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 91 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Cooked apricots jump right out of the glass when I smell the wine. There are some honey scents too, along with some musky petrol, and a bit of greenish rhubarb. Light green apples come in up front and are followed by a hint of honey and some ripe pears on the mid palate. The acidity is excellent throughout the entire experience. The wine has a cool, crisp mineral zing toward the finish as well.

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• 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 89 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Deep, musky oily note is buried amongst ripe red apples and some acidity on the nose. The acidity on the palate is big and long all the way through. Some light red apples and floral flavors linger in the background as well. Based on previous notes, this may be entering a dumb phase.

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• 2006 Selbach-Oster Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Auslese * 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Crazy honey scents are all over the nose here. Some delicate floral notes, something that reminds me of peach jelly, and a hint of nutmeg come through as well. The mouth feel is lovely with a gentle touch to it despite loads of sweet flavors. Some lovely, rich pineapple appears toward the finish, and some solid acidity runs out on the finish with the sweetness as well. An interesting note on this wine is that it was quite affected by botrytis, but it was harvested before the split berries oxidized fully. This means that the juice wasn't quite as concentrated as fully evolved botrytis wines, but also, the color is much lighter as opposed to the deeper gold of juice that has been exposed to oxygen. 90+

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