February 21, 2024 - Day2: Nose is muted with golden peach and apricot and spices. Wonderful stony minerals. Deep and potent. Like bottled sunshine. Th palate is superb. Beautiful peach and apricot and spice with nice minwrelriy - just a touch of sweetness to go with the deep minerals. Finish is apricots and stones. This isn’t huge, but it’s beautiful and perfectly balanced.
September 21, 2023 - After a couple really good bottles of this wine, this one showed a darker color more like a 10 year old Sauternes, and seemed just a bit advanced. It was by no means over the hill, but showed older, darker, less crisp with more mature notes than a bottle a couple months ago.
September 1, 2023 - Vastly better than my last bottle three and a half years ago - surprised to see it change so dramatically in so short a time. This is such classic Mosel with flavors of green apple and honeydew on a base of filigreed slate. It tastes very nearly dry but feels like there is at least a smidge of sugar that kind of reminds me of a Peter Lauer wine in striking the perfect Goldilocks balance in making the wine neither too soft nor too acute, holding on to its refreshment value even as it warms up in the glass.
August 12, 2023 - Brought to a group tasting in Boston, after being kept in checked luggage during a flight and put in the fridge for 4 hours before opening. Despite the potential for bottle shock, this had a tremendous showing. Grapefruit, cantaloupe, tangerine, and a core of dry slate waft from the glass. The fruit is ripe but the wine is lithe and refreshing, on the drier side of off-dry. Though light in body there is a nice delicate grip on the palate from the dry extract and fine acids that lingers for quite awhile.
Such a good wine that is in a nice drinking window now, but could certainly continue to develop over the next 5-10 years.
May 13, 2023 - My bottle. Gangbusters. My last bottle of this was good but not great and a bit muted but I stuck my nose in this and BOOM! - huge peach and spice and minerals. Perfect balance and huge energy. There is a lovely bitter streak of orchard fruit pits from the immense extract. Crammed full of goodness but it’s so dynamic that it’s not even a bit heavy. Many others noted how well this was showing.
Day 4: Nose is peach and apricot, spicy and Smokey, chili pepper gelee, a bitterness like peach pits. This is deep and rich with immense power humming beneath the surface. Palate is similar - deep baritone peach and apricot. Spice and smoke as well. Enters light but build and builds - really potent. It’s somewhat dry but has so much fruit that it feels sweet - the long bitter streak comes out in the middle and drives through the finish. Nose - 5/5, Palate - 5.5/6, Finish - 5.5/6, Je ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 = 17.5/20.
March 25, 2023 - a double decant an hour ahead of drinking seems to have helped
October 27, 2022 - Got that buzzing golden-yellow baroque energy below the surface of the nose - some floral, some honey, some grapefruit and some tropicals - pollen and rocks. The palate is buzzing with energy as well - great salty minerality driving through. This bottle isn’t huge but It’s driven with lots below the surface. Delicious and ponderous. There’s something about the combo of the pure grapefruit-like fruit with the savory-saline minerality that is just captivating.
September 3, 2022 - Lovely classic aromas of spicy green apples and faint petrol. Sweet but not overly so with excellent acidity and lovely balance. A great wine with grilled meat and vegetables.
August 30, 2022 - This wine is showing some evolution and this is the first bottle of this with more mature notes. The subdued sweetness seems to have taken another half step back, the balance of sweetness to acidity is really attractive. That said, I'm not sure this wine is any better than it was young, just different
July 13, 2022 - This is the first Ur Alte Reben I've had with any meaningful age on it. It's still good but has a bitter streak and the fruit tones are more yellow and golden than I prefer. At least based on this bottle, this is a cuvée I may prefer younger.