October 27, 2020 - The best of three bottles over the past few years. It is not showing any of the honeyed taste I had on the previous bottles. The only one that lived up to expectations
August 13, 2019 - Getting towards nineteen years from an indifferent vintage, is this premoxed or just oxed...
Deep golden orange color, verging on copper - there's a ton of botrytis as well as candied orange peel and dried spice on the nose. It's flat on the palate, with no structural edges to hold onto. The flavors, initially interesting from an aged perspective, become tiring after just a few sips.
2000 is not a top vintage for Trimbach, or Alsace for that matter. There's also the looming specter of mistreatment by the regional distributor, so it's hard to separate time, vintage character and provenance. I'll just open another soon, and hope for the best.
December 26, 2014 - Nice balance of sweetness and steely concentration, very Trimbach. Slightly caramelised aspect to the sweetness I wasn't expecting. Really quite good and stood up to Xmas pudding.
October 14, 2014 - Still holding up decently, but probably toward the end of its prime. Honey, spices, apple, and some petrol on the nose. Good acidity and minerality - the balance is fabulous, rich but not heavy. A lovely aged riesling.
October 6, 2014 - Just off dry (but still sweeter than most CFE VTs), apricot and honey, blossoms, rich. Drinking well, no oxidation, but not sure this is holding a lot in reserve. B+/B
April 21, 2014 - opened poured half a glass and let slowly ox in the bottle for a couple of hours. This wine really showed the effect of botrytis with lots of nuts and honey, this had some good acidity to balance the sweetness so didn't feel at all cloying. the finish was pleasantly long, a good bottle of this wine.
August 7, 2013 - I liked this a great deal a few years ago, but it's aging poorly and doesn't have the vibrancy and lightness it had earlier. As David notes, the botrytis is overwhelming the fruit and minerality here and while it's still well balanced, it's not particularly interesting and rather disappointing given how great the CFE VT usually is.
August 7, 2013 - Three years on since my last bottle of this, and it remains a rich and honeyed wine that has great flavor interest, but is not my favorite CFE VT. The botrytis flavors are quite dominant, with honey and spice masking almost all of the Riesling-ness of the wine. Things freshen up a bit with air, and the wine gets more precise as a result, but I never get past the VT-ness. Rather than calling this CFE VT, it should be VT CFE. Very enjoyable as a not too sweet botrytis wine, but not what I am looking for from this bottling. I would drink up soon before any remaining varietal character is totally gone.
June 29, 2013 - Light gold in colour. A lovely nose with honey and flowers, spice and hints of petrol. It feels gorgeous in the mouth with honey, apricot, banana and toasted nuts to finish, the acidity runs cleanly through it to a lovely,long dry finish. Just hitting its stride but will keep for many years yet I would think.
December 19, 2012 - Meh, Something off with this bottle