I think you can start worse into a tasting. This 98 Schloßberg is a real chameleon. At first it´s has definitely more fruit than the 99 we drank next to it. Lots of smoke, smoked meat, bacon fat mixed with a riper yellow fruit and some salt. The salt became a more and more dominant factor, the smoke went into the back and the fruit gets more and more elegant. On the palate the tension also only knows one way. Up. Very fine, super fresh, powerful and elegant. Again a lot of smoke. In the beginning I highly voted for the 99. In the end I wasn´t that sure anymore. Crazy, that after 20 years this wine still need about three to four hours to really shows everything. Stunning.

To taste the 98 and the 99 side by side was big privilege, thanks Young-Uk! In the beginning the 99 was clearly better than the 98. Much leaner, more elegant and wonderful precise. The nose really needs some time to get more open but then delivering also some cold smoke, yellow flowers, white and yellow fruit, herbs and a bit of spices. Very harmonic and dancing. Wonderful fresh on the palate, great grip, minerality and incredible salty. It has one of the best finishes I had in a dry Riesling for a long, long time. So powerful and lasting forever.
It would have been interesting to compare in the end, if the bottle lasted as long as the 98. But it was empty very quick. Another good sign for a great wine. I´m sure from a perfect bottle this can last at least for another one to two decades.

Had a hard standing besides the two Schlossbergs. A bit broader and more exotic but with an astonishing clear as a bell fruit profile. Still fresh and improving over time in the glass. Mineral finish. Very good but never a 100 point wine like Markus Hofschuster rated it for Wine Plus back in the days.

I had really high expectations after Dirk and Young-Uk told me that this is one of the best vintages ever produced in the Wachau (I´m not such a big fan as they are) but this Kellerberg from F.X. was way too overdone imo. Super concentrated, candied apricots, pure Botrytis flavors. Also on the palate powerful but more driven by the alcohol and big heat in the back. Not my cup of tea, neither the one of the other tasters.

Normally I´m not the biggest fan of the 05 vintage because the wines tends to be a bit too broad imo. But Koehler-Ruprecht managed the heat very good here. This was a perfect bottle in such a great shape. The nose needs time and only slowly opens up but then delivering everything I missed the night before in my 04. White fruit, minerals, white flowers, a hint of yellow fruit, herbal components and a hint of almonds. On the palate powerful, but never missing the elegance. Creamy, riper fruit aromas than in the nose. Very precise and still super, super young. Wonderful showing but I also know about the big problems with corked bottles in this time period. Dominik Sona the new CEO said that they are much more behind it now.

Another WOW wine and the nearly the whole group went for this bottle as their WOTN. I couldn´t remember I had it once before in 2014 (thanks Cellar Tracker :-9). A very typical nose for a German dry Riesling with a lot of fresh yellow stone fruit, citrus peel, yellow flowers, sea salt and mineral notes. On the palate the acidity really puts this bad boy on another level. Dancing around your tongue together with the ripe, super zesty yellow fruit and ending in a long, wonderful precise and also juicy in a certain kind of way. A perfect bottle and definitely in my Top 3 of the night. Thanks god my friends still have some in their cellars.

Thank god only one of the bottles (despite the Falkenstein) I brought on this weekend really shows at it best. We had the 08 the day before in a restaurant, it´s also a very, very good wine but this 07 would have blown it out of the water. After about a year after we had our last bottle at the "Ten years after" tasting, this 07 is still in a kind of youthful period and only develops over time in the glass. Perfect ripe stone fruit with some yellow but also some orange components, sea salt and minerals.
On the palate the broader shoulders of the heavier Morstein Terroir shines through and delivers besides a great tension, perfect integrated acidity and a mineral storm, the amount of power this vineyard stands for. Like Dirk said a really vibrant and exciting showing. I´m sure there is a lot of left under the surface. Give it ten years and I´m sure this will be one of the wines of the vintage. 96+

Poured blind by Samer. Incredible fresh and lively for the rather big 2015 vintage. Very pure but also a lot of fruit iridescent between red and black fruit. It definitely had it´s extract but it is wonderful interwoven.

Also poured blind by Samer and we were all at a Premier Cru from Vosne. Very surprised when we saw the bottle. Like the Premier Cru we had the day before this Vosne-Romanee is dominated by red fruit flavors. But the fruit is much cleaner and purer than the 08 showed. Herbs, earth and the typical Vosne spices come out. Collin called it a kind of chilly powder. We had a long chat after this wine and it was constantly developing in the glass. A more sophisticated kind of red burgundy but on the other side it has the perfect amount of acidity to flow down like water. Long, super, super elegant finish. I´m really impressed by this Village and I´m 100% sure that German Pinots (maybe with one exception) couldn´t play on this level. Even the really big guns. There is this Burgundy magic here. Everyone who knows this wines knows what I mean.