June 6, 2016 - Consistent with my last tasting notes. Great potential for at least 5+ years.
April 20, 2016 - Glass: Riedel Vinum Syrah
1 Glass poured with Coravin.
Clear light golden yellow Color. Fantastic, intense nose with a bunch of very unsual, but fascinating aromas of yellow fruit, herbs minerality and oak.
This dry Riesling is fermented and matured in partially new wooden casks which makes it special. The oak gives the wine a very good backbone and completely different flavours. It has Vibrant energy, force and elegance. Still very young, next glass in 1-2 years. Wonderful wine, a pitty that this is my only bottle...
October 5, 2014 - Complex, spicy, almost perfumed nose of pears, honey, rubber. Harmonius.
Complex, full, fat palate with lovely generous fruit. Just a hint of petrol and rubber. Fresh minerality in finish. Extremely tasty and seductive.
April 14, 2014 - Very intense honeyed yellow color - surprisingly deep for a Riesling. The nose is equally atypical: it feel almost stuffy with its pronounced, over-the-top woody oak spice character and sweeter nuances of vanilla. There are some ripe citrus fruits and cool herbal aromas that give some semblance of balance to the nose department, but it's still quite an oak bomb. The wine is dry, full-bodied and very bold on the palate with a mouthfeel that is really heavy and massive despite the high acidity. There are rich flavors of ripe red apples, cream, subtle oak spice, some pineapple, a little bit of stony minerality and a hint of lemon zest. The finish is rich, almost unctuous and pretty heavy with powerful flavors of oak spice, cream, tart green apples, some toffee and a hint of stony minerality.
These von Winning wines seem to be quite hit-or-miss wines. Whereas the vintage 2009 of this same wine seemed pretty oaky, yet still quite balanced, this vintage seems to be a little less balanced. I remembered the fruit being a bit more pronounced in the 2009, which could explain why the oak character seems a bit excessive here - there is a little bit less fruit to offset all the creamy, spicy and vanilla tones from the barrel aging. If 2011 was a warm year, I really fear how this wine performs in cooler vintages when the fruit is even more subtle. Whereas the wine was still somewhat off balance now, you really could feel that there is a very good wine underneath all that oak - maybe these wines just need 10 years in a cellar to integrate all that oak and make them really sing? Now there is no sense in opening these wines - unless you really, really like oak - because they are pretty one-dimensional and lacking depth of fruit, but maybe things get different once the wines get some more age? Feels a bit overpriced at 38€.
August 3, 2013 - Zurückhaltende Frucht: Birne, Quitte, Pfirsich. Tolle Mineralität, wunderbar eingebundenes Holz, herrlich lang im Gaumen. Ein großer Wein.
February 17, 2013 - Riesling der anderen Art. Wenig Primärfrucht. Unglaubliche würzige und mineralische Stahlkraft. Spannend, lang und vibrierend. Groß.
September 3, 2012 - Weingut Von Winning - "The Wines from Pfalz" (Scandic KNA Oslo): Flaxen colour. Fresh and sharp aroma, pineapple and detergent. Dry and bitter finish. Warm style. Very young now.