4/26/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

My 2nd bottle, almost a year later, is just as fresh, as the screwcap seal came off with a loud 'pop'. The colour is now a bright medium yellow. There is still some sulphur showing on the nose, which is rocky-fruity-slightly waxy, but fades. Likewise, the palate is full of energy at the start, but while it still qualifies as a textbook kabi, it isn't as vigourous towards the end of the bottle. Very good, but I am inclined to drink most of these over the next summer, which is exactly the purpose for which it was made.

4/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

VDP logo on what feels and looks like a premium 5cm long cork. Medium yellow, but not the brightest. Takes some time to open-up, revealing, after about an hour, some grilled peanut notes mixed with pineapple. But, not as forward apropos of both these characteristics as the same label in the 2005 vintage. Some soy here as well. The palate didn't impress for the 1st hour, but it develop thereafter. Although the alcohol is lower by 1.5 % points to 12.5 compared to the 2005 version, the wine feels harsh, acidic and simple in the mouth, especially as it is a VDP Otswein. Good, but joyless. Day 2, with two small pours remaining in the bottle: better than on the 1st day, not as raw and challenging, but showing an earthier side, with spicy pineapple notes on the nose and having a rounder feel in the pungent, more open and concentrated mouth. Between very good and very good plus on the 2nd day, it would greatly benefit by decanting. Should hold well for at least three years.

4/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Leaking at bottom of capsule, but level still good. Neck of bottle still wet after capsule removed. Full bright yellow colour. The dried apple, quince and peach nose also has floral notes. At 2 hours wax and orange citrus emerge, becoming more waxy with each glass. Lots going on here. Lovely slender palate with ample, but nicely restrained yellow fruit, becoming slightly creamy after a couple of hours. As it warms, the creaminess takes on the little orange citrus note too. Quite lovely and close to fine.

4/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Another cooking wine/cellar-defender contestant, priced on promotion at €4.49 at Maxima in Rīga. Conglomerated, medium-sized particle cork. Medium ruby, thinning at fringe. Savoury nose of not fully ripe cherry, but also minor (American, I suspect) oak. The mouth is lightish to medium bodied and broadly classically Italianesque, except when the wood shows-up and veers it to a New Wordly style just before the finish. That said, the acidity on the finish is properly Md'A. Some natural sweetness showing nicely. Overall, a good quaffing wine which takes me back to the mid-80's when I came across a public foyer tasting of basic Italian wines in a Melbourne food hall, resulting in the purchase of a couple of magnums of Citra Md'A at ten Aussie dollars per head. Fun times.

4/24/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Purchased as a cooking wine on promotion at Maxima in Rīga at €3.69, which after excise and VAT are deducted, leaves a gross income of less than €2.14 for the retailer. Medium particle conglomerate cork. The deepish, dark cherry skin colour still has some crimson to it. A simple and anonymous nose of dark, slightly stewed berry doesn't spell Spain or tempranillo, except for the use of American wood. The palate is slightly jammy and the 6 months in American oak shows in no uncertain terms. While the finish is harsh, there is very good concentration and an honest rusticity that gives it some appeal. Quite good and a bargain at the price paid.

4/23/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Purchased as a cooking ingredient at Maxima in Rīga on promotion at €5.49. Synthetic stopper. Lightish ruby colour. The nose exudes alcohol, though this is labelled as a rather humble 13%. Some modest grenache comes through, but it's oxidative as well. Definitely not good. The mouth is light-bodied with simple, yet brutally fermented fruit which is lacking in both concentration and grip, being harsh and alcoholic. I suppose the mouth beats the nose if the two were to battle for which was the least vicious, but it doesn't save the wine from being a worse than dire representative of the Côtes du Rhône genre.

4/23/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Purchased as a cellar-defender candidate from Rimi in Rīga, on promotion at €8.39, down from €13.99. It is adorned with a shiny silver ''Selection by Rimi'' sticker, so it might become a regular line for the trader.

Medium ruby. As well spotted and remarked by another taster this year, the nose initially bears a similarity to gamay. The nose suggests decent ripeness of straight-forward blueberry-like fruit, but after an hour it gains complexity. Dark cherry and damson plum take centre stage, with green herbs, leather, animal fur and malt extract each making brief appearances on the wings. Over the 2nd hour, some intermittent charred notes emerge, which - if I hadn't looked at the producer's fact sheet for the wine - would have made me think that this had come in contact with toasty American oak. (Maybe the indigenous yeasts bring out this nuance? Maybe some of the grapes got sunburnt?)

The palate doesn't show any wood, however, and seems to be denser than a gamay would be. Properly concentrated crunchy berry, but while it's faultlessly balanced, up to the first hour it's not showing the features that brought on the gushing reviews from Decanter and Tamlyn Currin from Jancis Robinson's site. It would be unfair to omit the admission that both of these reviews were in 2021, so I strongly suspected over that first hour - especially given the wine is closed by a Diam 1 grade cork - that the Matilda Nieves mencia is best enjoyed as young as possible and that I'd simply missed the boat. Yet afterwards, it gains weight, a silky texture, concentration and a delicious sweetness just before the crunchy finish. Harvested by hand and clearly made with care, this is very good plus and a great cellar defender. I expect fans of nebbiolo and pinot noir would enjoy this.

4/12/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Over two days. Colour is about medium yellow, with some greenish elements. Nose is grapefruit and the same theme continues in the very nervous mouth. "Er zappelt", as Karl Koch would have most definitely said back in 1897, even without the spritz. Textbook zippy kabinett. That it lost a little edge on the 2nd day tells me that this is at peak and should be drunk over the summer months. Very good plus.

4/11/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

A blend of Riverina and Barossa Valley material. Awarded the trophy for Best Riverina Dry Red at the 2022 Riverina Wine Show. A little crimson to the medium ruby colour. Noses a little confected and even 20 minutes doesn't evoke real interest. Close to two hours since opened, this surprisingly light-bodied shiraz is still unconvincing. Indeed, I'm flummoxed that the Barossa fruit has failed to give more weight. It's probably seen very high cropping, so I can only speculate what the Riverina component was like before the blend. Modest, un-peppery, un-spicy and rather dilute shiraz, hardly a quintessential expression of the variety and hardly the stuff that would get a trophy from me. Maybe I was just unlucky with an inferior lot: L14087 23052 14:53. Only quite good.

4/11/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Purchased - most likely, as a bin-end - at the usual outlet-type retailer in Rīga for €3.99, so the gross income for the vendor is about €2.38, after VAT and excise. Composite particle cork. Yellowish, looking fresh also on the 2nd and 3rd days. Except for a modest note of aniseed on the final day, the nose has a basic, ripe white-but-unspecial-grape type of freshness about it. I can only detect colombard - the workhorse of dull white wine - which is how it presents. The palate too, is ripe and fresh, but is bland and falls flat at the finish like the colombard-based wines I remember of many years ago. Served chilled, it qualifies as quite good stuff for garden parties with undemanding guests. But not for the table.

4/6/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Good level, though the cork came out without much resistance. No problems thankfully as a result, because the wine has a bright medium yellow colour. Initially floral nose gives way to ripening pineapple and the palate is much better after an hour or so, revealing some pungent yellowish citrus, but also a raspy finish. Between very good & very good plus.

4/6/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

More mid-yellow than yellowish now. Over two hours, there were two or three times at which I thought that, on the nose, perhaps this bottle was ever so slightly corked. Only Mosel apple showing on the nose. Palate shows a vibrant, succulent and nicely concentrated QbA, but simpler than the one noted close to a year ago. Close to very good, though.

3/29/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

My last bottle had an old, minor leak, with a level 3.3cm below cork. Fullish yellow colour. Nutty, fading crystallized pineapple nose. Palate was quite disjointed initially, but gathered composure, though it wasn't the attractive thing it was in its youth. Meandering, but rather simple and unfocused flavours which pretty much tell me that this wine delivered much more satisfaction in its pubescent youth, which seemed to have lasted until just a year ago, than when it reached late teens. Almost like the last bottle, this was merely good to good plus. Perhaps just bad luck, because I was fond of the Winter Kalkstein.

3/24/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

It takes a little sleuthing to know the name of the producer of this wine, purchased this month on promotion at Lidl, in Rīga at €4.19. With the penultimate batch of digits in the bottle's A.P. nr. being 278, it was already pretty clear that it was a really big, commercial operation that had produced this riesling. Thank goodness for the German Prüfnummer system, through which the producer can be traced.

Subtracting the newly increased excise duty and value-added-tax, Lidl's net revenue is less than €2.55 for this bottle. So, what does one get for this money? Well, a screwcap closure is nice. The wine, more than light yellow and getting on to medium yellow in colour, has a volatile nose. No surprise there - it is lowest-shelf supermarket Großlagen riesling, after all, legally exploiting the name of this famous town on the banks of the Mosel to give some marketing heft to its product - but what is perplexing is that there is a decent amount of white and yellowish pear here also. The pear is also adequately concentrated in the mouth, in a slightly overripe way, but the feinherb style is properly respected and hasn't been put on the label simply to trap gullible consumers. Light body, but with decent length. So, apart from the cursed volatility, the wine delivers more than I expect for the price. Tidy-up that wine-making and it would be a good wine, not the ordinary beverage it is now.

3/24/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Not having made a note on a 1996 red Burgundy since autumn 2015 (a Volnay 1er cru), it was imperative that I start looking at my small collection. I've never found the 1996 Cave Privee Les Vignes Rouges to offer any excitement in the eight times I drank and noted it between 2000 and 2008, essentially oscillating between good and good plus. Yet a private note I made in the middle of 2012 had it showing better and deserving a rating of very good. Similar to that bottle, this one had a light ruby core, with a gradual progression to brick-red and russet to faintly tawny at the fringe. The nose was properly ripe and attractive Bourgogne rouge, gently oaky, but the mouth, for the large part, was quite thin, scrawny, acidic in the way 1996 is regarded to be, and short. Yet, with the lights turned off for Earth Hour and sharing the wine by candlelight with my wife, I found the wine was also making some effort for the occasion, herding its sweeter components together to the extent that I would have liked this bottle to have held a full litre and not three quarters of it. During Earth Hour, I found this to be very good again. This is in surprisingly good shape given its modest pedigree.

3/21/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Under cork, as it has been, up to this vintage at least, since the producer began to offer a separate #6 bottling for the Treppchen kabinett in the 2014 vintage. Light yellow colour, with a complex nose that is floral more than it is Treppchen fruity in the standard kabinett bottling from this vineyard, with some light peach kernel, pungent peach, blackcurrant leaf, lactic and later, waxy notes. Lovely ethereal kabinett with an alcohol content (7.5%) that simply doesn't show. Nor does the residual sugar. This is a superbly balanced, light-on-its-feet and fine kabinett which reminds me very much of my 1st encounter with the #6 bottling in the 2014 vintage. Still as pure and delightful on the 2nd day, with just under a half remaining in the bottle.

3/19/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Decanted. Deep, dark cherry-skin colour with garnet fringe. At 1 hour, cool fruit, concentrated, but slightly bitter tannin. A few minutes later, coffee and cassis spell cabernet sauvignon. At 2 hours, the quality barrique shows its poise. Very nicely concentrated, but I'd like to see more length. Which comes not long after, at which point it is clear that I am very close to Cru Classé quality here, and not for the first time with Sénéjac in 2010. Paired with stewed beef ribs, which brings out the sweetness, but after the meal the sweetness dissipates and the wine tightens-up. I'm finding the 2010 Cru Bourgeois generally are not linear in their development and still not fully open for maximum pleasure. I'll leave my other bottles of Sénéjac 2010 untouched for at least another year. Fine with food, but a half-notch lower at very good plus without it.

3/17/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Well, with Summer not too far around the corner, I thought it time to take this out for a test drive to see if it could become the house white in the warmer months. The colour is still unchanged from December 2022 - yellowish, with a slight green tinge - and the nose is just as reticent, with some modest yellow citrus pungency. The mouth, while primary, is not convincing me that this has a future and I'm not getting the usually reliable vineyard signature from this bottle. It seems the stuff of young vines. Only good plus, but on the 2nd day from a half, the nose has opened-up, with candied white and yellowish fruit notes. While there is still no vineyard signature, the palate is fresh, drier than I would normally expect a feinherb to be and a little loose towards the initially shortish finish. But it improves after an hour or so to add length at which stage it seems very good. So, somewhere between these two grades is about right, but at this stage I'm not sure it will fit the bill for summer quaffing.

3/17/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Screwcap. Lots of fizz visible upon pouring the 1st glass. The colour is balanced between a full yellow and gold. Honey and very ripe peach on the nose combine to suggest a warm vintage. That note of rye bread (very well spotted by mnuncorked 03.06.2019) is there too, maybe even with a sprinkling of caraway seeds. An hour later there is citrus zest. The palate is very ripe and concentrated, much more than the producer's Würzgarten counterpart in Ürzig, and, unlike the said counterpart, makes the late-harvest statement in no uncertain terms. The finish is on the shorter side and it's a little loose. Close to very good, however.

3/17/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

My 1st Dellchen. Over three days. Opened due to low level. No external evidence of a leak, but with the capsule removed, it was blindingly obvious that this example had leaked a good while ago, with enough residue having been built up between the cork and the top of the capsule preventing further leakage. Level 4.1cm below the cork, which fractured into three large segments upon removal.

Intense full yellow colour. Slightly volatile nose, but the attention was quickly drawn to the very obvious late-harvest and exotic characters that were showing here. Pungent marzipan to start, then developing over two hours to reveal mango, lactic notes, distant uncleaned ashtray and honey from fragrant nectar. The pungent, yellow-golden peach flavoured mouth seemed to still be very cohesive, introducing itself in a straight-forward manner, taking a couple of hours to add a creamy quality.

On the 2nd day, from a half, the colour had not advanced, but the late-harvest nature of the nose had become subdued by white fruit, camphor and wax, while the palate - again keeping its complexities to itself - preferred to show a lovely balance and good length. On the 3rd day, with a glass-worth remaining, the accent was clearly back on the late-harvest, with apricot flavours of auslese depth dominating the palate. Closer to very good plus than very good and should hold condition for at least a couple of years.

3/6/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Level still into neck. Not decanted. Like the previous noted bottle in January 2023, this was also a deep garnet, only fading at the rim. Floral, archetypal Margaux nose, with a mix of geranium and lily ahead of nicely judged barrique. Palate shows vitality, structure and confidence. After an hour, it broods for a similar interval, before returning more complete and sweeter. Not as svelte as she was when the first glass was poured, but the added weight has now made her simply gorgeous as her lips continue to meet mine. It's not Mme. Palmer - d'Angludet is the housemaid - though it seems the servant-girl has lately discovered the little box of her lady's aphrodisiacs. What a lovely bottle. I'm a sucker when it comes to such femininity. Between fine and fine plus, with more loving kisses promised.

3/6/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Screwcap closure, which I think around this vintage was starting to be used by the producer for the basic spätlese bottlings. A bright, medium to fullish yellow colour. Nose suggests the lower prädikat than it does the one on the label, but no problem there, except the idea of a late harvest isn't coming through. Some spritz in the mouth tells of the freshness here and, while it is rather lightweight - no bad thing, if one ignores the category - it isn't really spelling the vineyard. No change on the 2nd day from a half. Very good, though.

3/4/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Two bottles opened. The colour from the 1st has more gold than yellow and looks more matted and advanced than it should be. Slightly oxidative nose of Golden Delicious brand yellow apples and bruised apple. The level of sweetness is spot-on for the category, but the palate is flat, with an old apple flavour, lacking interest and vitality. The fresh apple acid finish can't save this from being a poor bottle.

Another bottle is withdrawn and this is more like it. Like the bottle had in March last year, this also is a matted, dullened medium yellow, but clearly fresher than the 1st one. The nose is floral and white-fruited. Correct kabi weight in the mouth, with decently ripe yellowish and white fruit flavours at the front and middle, but building more colour towards the tail. Unspecial length, though. Very good, but not more. Perhaps better on 2nd day and warmer? Indeed, from a half, it is! Nose is more complex, with white melon, ripening peach, cherry blossom, nougat and honeyed notes. The mouth is layered and has had length added to it. The VG+ button is getting hit enough to show this bottle is pretty much like the nice one in March 2023. Closer to room temperature is the thing to observe here.

3/1/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

My last bottle. Cork removed intact - a good sign - but the colour is an unappetising medium tan with orange hints immediately upon pouring. The nose shows orange citrus and very minor marzipan, but clearly, the wine is well beyond prime. The palate is sweet, having a light-spätlese body, but while the flavour is decently concentrated with old orange fruit, the initial sense of some residual energy has vanished, leading to a dull and dreary conclusion. At the start it was quite good, but before the half-bottle mark it becomes just ordinary, which is in-line with my memory how this wine has generally performed since 2019. My lot are done now, but I see 19 bottles in CT as still remaining unconsumed. I wish the owners, or the executors of their estates, good luck.

3/1/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Screwcap removed unremarkably. A bright and full yellow colour, with some very minor green tints. Peach with some lemon on the nose to start, but close to an hour later, it showed something unusual - like dark camphor and baked pastry - in a twisted sort of a way. A half-hour later and the lemon seemed to have swapped places with the peach. The mouth was properly ripe and weighty, with good length and a nice tingling acidic finish, carrying the thought that the spritz of a year ago was still there until recently. (Well, there was still some there, as the slight fizz created by an aggressive pouring action was easily visible.) But the palate was not quite as vigorous as it was a year ago. A little flatter. Tending to dry on the finish, with an aftertaste that reminded me of the flavour of dry grass.

Day 2 from a half: the nose was a more fragrant lemon ahead of peach, with camomile in support, having dispensed with the unusual camphor-pastry note of the 1st day. The mouth was more vibrant too, with spritz now detected on the tongue, as well as revealing a proper acidic spine. Despite some creamy flavours on the front, it became more streamlined and slender and was the better for it. Yet, it did seem to want to unravel on the finish. Dry, grippy aftertaste. Very good and thought-provoking, but best to drink now.

2/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Stored horizontally since June 2006, this half-bottle was a dark tan colour and was as sherried as one can imagine a wine can become. Perhaps the vintage and/or the very crumbly cork were the culprits? Kept far too long.

2/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

In view of my note earlier this month, I thought it best to approach another of my four remaining bottles tonight. The colour spectrum was the same: weak core, brick-red and tawny at fringe. This bottle seemed more aromatic - the raspberry being more evident, riper and not allowing the wood to dominate. The mellow mouth took only 10 minutes to begin showing sweetness and length, which surprised me by persisting for 90 minutes. While being a better bottle than the one previously, it still didn't reach the captivating highs of the bottle in May 2023. Very good, though.

2/23/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Full yellow. To start, the nose is a little flat and doesn't spell the Mosel. If anything, it's a little overripe. It noses like I would expect an an older riesling from the Palatinate to nose. Close to an hour later, one could argue that there is some nuttiness there, which would draw me towards a riesling from the Rheinhessen. Still, I'm not finding the Mosel announcing itself at any point. The mouth has decent concentration, but it's short of the length one expects from the prädikat. Pinched finish, too, initially. There is no sign of the acidity associated with the vintage, but what acidity there is doesn't really liven things up. After an hour it's gained weight and length, but it's pretty clear that he wine has also started to show its alcohol. From a lowly quite good at the beginning, it pulled its socks up to become good in the end. A distinctly inferior showing to the bottle noted in April 2022. Anyway, they are done with now.

2/23/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

A badly corked bottle was opened a week ago and which showed a good depth of ripe, though contaminated, fruit. It was salvaged as an additive to a simple, ready-made, but local, blend of stewed sauerkraut and caramelized onion, mixed with smoked pork belly.

So, a week passed and another bottle was opened, as I was keen to see how this wine in this troubled vintage had been getting on since last noted in October 2022.

An intense medium yellow colour. A nose of old marzipan and old lemon before moving on to a pungent, herbal, quasi-melon/unripe pineapple Rheingau-like character. The palate was also multi-layered with pungent, yet sweet and ripe white fruits and possessed a lovely silken mouthfeel and length. This was a splendid bottle and better than those previously noted. Fine and, on the basis of this bottle, it should drink at this level or thereabouts for at least a couple of years, in view of vintage limitations.

2/22/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Ruby core, brick-red flanks and russet edge look good. Twenty minutes after pouring it still has a vegetal, stalky & red berry nose, but another ten minutes has clove coming through. The mouth is rustic, but at the half-hour mark it's getting going and some sweetness starts to show. While it has convinced me at this point that it is a very good wine, it doesn't deliver the pleasure another ''country bumpkin'' - the 2002 Maison Albert Bichot Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Cortons - provided earlier this month.

2/18/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Towards medium yellow in colour. Floral notes mix with lightly perfumed talcum powder and suggest sweet white fruit more than they do yellow fruit on the nose, but within 10 minutes it goes slightly pungent. Another 10 minutes later the nose gets quite waxy and there is nectarine and a little marzipan showing, too. The pungency is carried on to the mouth, which keeps adding length and sweetness over three hours. Grapefruit finish, like the previous vintage.

I'd never guess Mosel if this was put to me blind. I would have said it was a dry Alsatian riesling and my second guess would have been the Rheingau. But, I've come to expect the unexpected with this weingut. This bottle is layered, complex and easily very good plus, verging on fine.

2/17/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Well, I have now come to the last of about five dozen bottles purchased around 2006 as a bin-end at about €10. With varying degrees of satisfaction, these have done their job defending the pricier red Burgundy in the cellar. I remember the first bottle, before committing to the large acquisition, as a plainly rustic Bourgogne, with Barolo-type tannin, but with much more character and concentration that one is expecting, given that we are in chardonnay-dominant vineyards. After first drinking it in autumn 2006 and rating it very good plus, it then closed down until spring 2010 when it started a pretty good run of being generally very good.

The colour seems a more intense red than recent bottles. The nose begins as strawberry, changing to a melange of cherry and darker red fruits plus barrique. It takes an hour to fully open-up, at which stage it is deliciously sweet. This very good plus last bottle leaves a nice memory indeed.

2/13/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Level 3.9cm below cork. Almost medium yellow, but with some green tints. The nose initially aims toward exotic fruit, with quince featuring, but changes course to a waxed-covered apple. In line with the vintage, this is a lighter spätlese with quite a nervous front, but it's seamless, with some nice yellowish fruit along its relatively impressive length and bringing a little cream, menthol and mint to what is a pretty protracted finish. Certainly, a much better showing than my last note, almost two years ago. Very good and should see 25 years.

2/11/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Had on 07.02.2024. Decanted 30 mins after opening (54mm cork in great condition) and poured two hours later. Deepish garnet, with some russet at the very edge. New barrique, mature St. Emilion dried fruit nose suggests a ripe vintage. Sweet, concentrated and seductive fruit on the front, but the wine fails to deliver what one anticipates will follow along the palate. It's not abrupt, but it is shorter than one could expect, given the reputation of the vintage and it being from one of the better GC estates. But, it develops positively, proven by the last glass being better than the first. So, there is hope yet!

Anyway, the dregs in the bottle - which had been left open and sitting on the table overnight - were substantial enough for a small glass to be poured the next day, around 24 hours after it had been opened. It was quite remarkable how both the nose and palate were unchanged after this time. An even longer sit in the decanter would have helped, it seems.

In all, between very good and very good plus. It should see 30 years, if properly stored.

2/10/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Light gold and medium yellow colour, which remains unchanged on the 2nd day, with about a third of the bottle remaining.

The nose doesn't show a very late-picked character, suggesting instead a spätlese style, with restrained tropical fruit and some wax. The mouth, though, clearly has auslese weight, breadth and length, even if not carrying flavours of any great complexity. But it's properly balanced and quite fresh for a 20 year old wine from the heatwave 2003 vintage, with the finish tending to orange citrus only on the 2nd day.

Given my similar reactions to the producer's 2003 auslesen from the Treppchen, I suspect Rudi Hermann got the harvests in early before the grapes reached full phenolic ripeness so as not to lose zip or acidity. That said, one shouldn't really be expecting complexity in this vintage for the auslesen at this weingut, but should be thankful that these wines are not the sugary and flabby beverages this vintage is criticized for producing. Good plus.

2/10/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Normal fill level. Though no spritz was detected, I am happy that this bottle, with the wine nearing twenty years of age, was almost identical to the one which was the subject of my last note. No loss of vitality eminent. It should age to a quarter of a century. Between very good and very good plus.

2/10/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

A little over a year since my last published note and another bottle - one with plenty of evidence of an old leak along the length of the capsule - is plucked from the cellar. Level 3.4cm below the fully saturated cork which extracts a little too easily, but is still elastic. Slight amber-orange tint to the full gold colour gains more amber by 30 minutes. Old pineapple-peach nose wants, at times, to show more late-picked character than much else. Mouth is fully intact, with unctuous ripe apricot. Seamless, with a good line and silky. On the 9th day, with a glass remaining in the bottle, this was still an orange-amber colour. The nose had developed a small orange citrus note, but there was no deterioration evident there or in the mouth. Close to very good.

2/9/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

The previous package emptied, a new one was acquired, given I was in the vicinity. This one showed an earlier filling date - 09.10.2021. Impressively deep and dark plum-red with some residual crimson and ruby to garnet at fringe. Quite different in appearance to the 26.05.2022 filling. To be picky, the nose on two occasions verged on being slightly porty. But what I like here is that there is a bit of pepper from the shiraz and there is nothing cherry-like to suggest carbonic maceration. Instead, there is a decent amount of dark ripe berry. The mouth is better than the later filling as well, being fuller, rounder, considerably more mellow and in view of the category, even polished. It does get tiresome, though, if one continues to bend the elbow in an endeavour to find why it's a better filling. Clearly a different, superior and preferable batch. Between quite good and good.

2/9/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

This bottle showed a brick-red colour, with a weak core, going to tawny at the fringe. Earthy, malty, old fuder-type oak with rather lame grenache dominating in the challenged fruit department. A bit over an hour later, there was some very faded raspberry, but the nose didn't develop any further. Sweetish, broad, mellow and old fruit mouth was more Côtes-du-Rhône than Châteauneuf. Slightly drying tannins. This bottle never opened the window to the engrossing highs of the bottles had in the first half of 2022 and 2023. Merely good plus.

2/9/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

While searching for a cheap red wine to serve as a cooking ingredient (boeuf bourguignon), I came across this nicely presented 1.5 litre bag-in-box blended red. Showing a 26.05.2022 filling date and bearing the ''Fairtrade'' symbol, it was on promotion in Rīga's largest outlet-type alcoholic drinks retailer at €4.99. Deducting value-added tax and excise duty, this means the local retailer pockets only €1.23 for the standard 75cl measure of this, most probably making it the cheapest wine currently available in Latvia's capital city. Worth a note on that point alone.

Broad crimson core with a bright ruby fringe spells vigour. The nose begins vegetally, but is quickly replaced by forward ripe cherry which makes me think of carbonic maceration as the fermentation method employed. Whatever the case, it noses like a typical industrial BIB packaged wine. However, while the mouth is rudimentary, short and coarse, it thankfully doesn't have any of the fake-sweet confected flavour that one would expect from a wine packaged thus. Further, it is surprisingly concentrated and even has some positive rustic character. The packaging informed me that there were hints of oak to be found, but I can't say that I found them.

Others might see this as plonk, but I'll call it satisfactorily ordinary.

2/5/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Purchased on promotion from the big outlet-type store in Rīga for €6.99. The DIAM 3 cork is encouraging. Medium ruby with a thin bricking line at rim. Farmyard nose, like a Côtes-du-Rhône. Herbs on the nose too, but I'm not getting that lifted carignan character. Well, some lift appears after 30 minutes, bringing some caraway seeds and distant weedy notes, both of which fade in favour of some varietal resemblance. Medium body, with plenty of attack, even aggressive, but no sense of depth. Unexpectedly shallow, given the ''old vines'' reference on the main label. Heady, but there needs to be more fruit concentration here to balance the 14.5% alcohol. Some sweetness showing at 30 minutes. While this short, bistro-type quaffer is good plus overall, the hunt continues for a better cellar defender.

2/3/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Sixteen months later, and this is still, as the light yellow colour shows, as bright as can be expected. Like my last note, this had very good zip/voltage which, on a rough estimate, lasted about 15 minutes, before losing its spark. That's not to say that in doing so it lost interest. No, interest was maintained throughout due to the undeniable vivacity of the pretty, but on-the-simple-side fruit, which was persistently yellowish-white fleshed fresh and crisp. Easily very good and an ideal 7.5% thirst quencher over the summer to come. This will go on to reach two decades.

2/1/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

3.3cm ullage. Colour a lightish-medium golden- yellow. Nose starts by suggesting overripe pear and a little crystallized citrus, before turning to modest honey, wax and old quince. Big mouth, but keeping within the spätlese limit from the sweetness point-of-view, I think, though the fruit is very easily auslese-ripe. Just as long as, but with better acidic presence and a more complex and layered palate than recent bottles from its counterpart, the Treppchen, the other main spätlese bottling from Dr. Hermann. Very good length here, but the modesty of the nose drags the rating for this bottle down to very good, noticeably better than the bottle noted a little over 8 months ago.

2/1/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Old leak and level 4.4cm below cork. A lovely bright medium yellow with a green tinge, but over an hour later it loses the green and the yellow colour deepens. Yellow stone fruit and lifted, slightly spiced tropical fruit nose reveals hidden layers as it warms, with wax, delicate citrus and candy. Lightish body with vibrant ripe yellow fruit in great abundance, with the tropics having even greater impact. After an hour or so, it mellows and the length improves. This is drinking really well as it warms to about 14°C. On the 3rd day, from a half, without any written record made, I do specifically remember that there was a small, older ginger theme developing. Fine, even for this bottle in its compromised condition.

2/1/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Yellowish colour, When first poured, having come from a northern cellar with a temperature of 3°C, the first impression was acacia and salted anchovy. But after 10 minutes, proper Rheingau pineapple, steel, crystallized white and yellow fruit. The palate, on first tasting at that low temperature, seemed uncharacteristically loose and short, but improved measurably by revealing true village structure and adding length around the time the nose changed. Dry and very pungent, true to style, but I was asking for a bit more sweetness, occasionally. With the alcohol level at 12.5%, could the fermentation have been arrested a little earlier? Close to very good plus, but not quite. I can see this going strong at two decades.

1/30/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

The brick-red fringe had expanded since last tasted 11 months ago and it is no longer a very deep and dark red, but a dark garnet. And that colour shift shouldn't surprise, given the very substantial deposit of sediment. Lovely ripe and forward left-bank nose. Dense and sweet dark berry which announces itself immediately in the mouth, but there is a cherry liqueur character there too, some new barrique, medium-grain tannin - all within a fullish body. Delicious cru bourgeois. Better than last time and just about fine.

1/29/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Three bottles this month. All with low levels. The 1st had a level 6.7cm below cork and a depressingly dark amber to tan colour. The nose immediately spelled a sherried wine, but it wasn't off-putting, as it closely resembled a Xerez. There was some sweetness on the front of the palate, but the sherry character and acidity took hold in the middle. After half an hour there was a bit of riesling flavour on the front and it was making an attempt to reach the middle, but thereafter it was clearly and irrecoverably sherried. Drinkable, and even quite good, if one is prepared to forget what it should have tasted like.

The other two bottles had levels of 3.0cm and 3.2cm below the cork. The wine from one was a full yellow with a golden hue, while from the other was a fresh looking medium gold. Both had the typical Treppchen yellow peach nose, but one was less straightforward in that it also showed some menthol. Again, both had a heavy, opulent, concentrated and low-acid mouth with an over-abundance of yellow peach, yet the one which had the menthol note also had a small, but nice spearmint flavour towards the end, when had with very ripe Munster. Both of these bottles were close to very good. Bottle variation is obviously to be expected.

1/27/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Two and a half years had elapsed since I last drank this wine. This last remaining bottle was taking up space in the cellar and I wasn't exactly looking forward to drinking it, given my last note. But, yet again, for the 2nd time this week, I had a pleasant surprise.

Youthful medium yellow colour. Fragrant white fruited nose, but within a minute, some alcohol peeped through. I thought, ''Here we go, I will sense the alcoholic warmth next'', but the mouth detected no such thing. I very quickly dispensed with my search for the flaw, because this bottle told me from the very first sip that it was much better than the first. Generously concentrated white melon-pear flavours from an obviously warm vintage and balanced in all respects. I was happy not to have to start penning any shortcomings. Not complex to be sure, but this very good last bottle was a positive way to part with this particular label in this vintage.

1/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

A bright, almost medium yellow, but with a green tinge. The nose is unlike the Würzgarten bottlings from Dr. Hermann in that it is subdued. A little ripe peach, even slighter mint at one point and, as it warms, there is minor alcohol volatility. But I can't spot the vineyard, I'm afraid.

A big mouth - certainly not shying away from its prädikat - which also fails to deliver the vineyard, though excepting the unabashed size of the wine as being the closest proponent of its source. And the size isn't due to the volume of fruit, it's to be found in the alcohol. Even at 11.5%, this is too alcohol-driven. At first, I noted that there was too much sweetness for the category, but the main objection is the alcohol, making the thing rather dull considering the producer, despite the slight spritz which persists until half the bottle is consumed. Only quite good.

1/25/2024 - Ingmars wrote:

Slight old leak. Level 3.6cm below fully saturated cork. Lightish brick red with broad tawny fringe. Old barrique, faded leather, quickly becoming perfumed with lifted raspberry, though the barrique is still obvious. The mouth is more light than medium bodied initially, but puts on weight, as well as adding sweetness at 40 or so minutes. Yet, at the one hour point, the sweetness is turned down in favour of darker, earthy and malty old oak flavours, with the length seeming to get shorter too, before recovering some. Yet, a stronger and more virile showing than a bottle with a raised cork had this year. Between very good and very good plus. Based on this bottle, it should still drink well at 50 years, which is some feat for a co-operative bottling!