January 8, 2024 - Riesling (Salil's, Albany, NY): Muted nose of peaches and pineapple. Long, complex and full in the mouth. At its peak. Showing beautifully.
January 8, 2024 - It's not a great wine - the flavours feel a little tired with baked apple/peach fruit dominating and light honeyed notes accenting the fruit, and it's rather light and a touch simple for an Auslese. But the fact that it's still drinkable, in fact fairly enjoyable, 20+ years on after a disaster of a vintage marred by such rain and gray rot says volumes about Helmut Dönnhoff's brilliance as a winemaker.
April 24, 2021 - Out of half bottle. Beautiful, almost intoxicating nose, but no acid to speak of on the palate, so really fell flat. Still quite tasty and worth drinking, but not an optimal showing.
December 13, 2018 - The worst German Riesling vintage of the last 20 years still produced a few gems. The Brücke Auslese is a small gem, but one with many facets. It’s light for an auslese, especially by the standards of the new millennium, but it shows effortless balance. Roasted peach, honey, brown spice and a little bit of quinine bitterness make up what is a quite soft palate. The acids are gentle, and the overall impression is of a fully mature wine (from 375 by the way), though not in any danger of imminent decline.
November 16, 2018 - Leaking bottle has oxidized enough to spoil the wine but I am optimistic about the others.
January 4, 2016 - AP 775 301 019 01; (Note--there was another commercial bottling of this, the 20 01; they were judged slightly differently by Schildknecht, who tasted them both together with the Auction Wine).
Importer Theise/Skurnik; Syosset, Long Island, New York (at the time); shipped by Weinhandel Walter Strub; purchased at a 12/2015 auction of Leland Little Corp. Auction price after BP is $36.50.
The soft cork was somewhat shredded by the prongs of the Durand; served in an Impitoyable. Gold-green-amber with some browning. Fresh juicy apricot with oil and some diesel still on the nose. Sweetness has started to pull back, but still juicy and tart; mid-palate and finish begin their sojourn somewhat soft, but I'm betting it'll firm up with some time in glass. Already a note of cold stewed apricot soup is emerging at the back.
The petrol is now just adding a note of complexity. The sweet fruit is underlain by rubbed, oiled wood, and dried autumn leaf and shows more depth and complexity than the lovely 1999 reviewed last week. Lots of nice clean mouth feel and, as predicted, the vivid finish goes on quite nicely, thanks very much.
This bottle was one that was tasted in Germany with the Maestro and his disciple Peter R., and was astonishingly good given one of the toughest vintages on memory. I was in Germany during this harvest and for three plus weeks there was nothing but rain, rain, rain. How such a fine wine emerged from this deluge is still a mystery. To make decent wines in this vintage, most of the grapes, uniformly full of rot and penicillium, needed to be rejected. I seem to remember that this vineyard was picked at about 5 hl/ha. Bravo, Helmut! I've rounded the score up because of the courage on the part of the winery staff that making this wine showed. As stated, a second AP number bottling was filled; Schildknect thought this one slightly better. The addition by accident of a single rotten bunch would have ruined this wine!
July 12, 2012 - Dinner with Eric (The Chairman): bright nose with sweet tropical fruits. a little dry on the finish but went perfectly with the crab.
April 5, 2010 - Deep golden color. Complex botrytis nose of honey and orange marmalade. In the mouth, it's syrupy and tasty. Finish is somewhat short. This bottle had some corrosion on the capsule, so maybe it's not showing its best on the finish. Very tasty in the middle though. Best served cool, not cold. 92 points.
Day 4: Stored in the fridge. More subtle and harmonious today. Now with a very long complex finish. This one has a long future! 94 points.