November 19, 2020 - Very dark colour, almost rose with hints of caramel. Ample but bright, with caramel sweetness offset by round orange-flesh acidity and a pleasingly bitter almond skin finish. Still has a lot going on, despite the obvious signs of age.
September 24, 2018 - Pausing for the Cause (S.K.Y. Restaurant - Chicago IL): Plenty of dried apricot and childish sweetness, with good density, but lacking in the complexity of another (better) bottle from last year.
September 24, 2018 - Pausing for the Cause 2018 (Chicago, IL): Quite nice for an older ZH. Clearly a wine that is of dessert level, with a generous amount of botrytis spice and sweet apricots and peaches. Well-balanced and not over the top at all.
November 3, 2017 - Chicago Wine Flock...Gary Goes Italian (Chez Weber - Chicago IL): Tasted double blind. Clearly Alsatian, although I thought this a rich, slightly younger Deiss field blend. Slightly tropical with some dried apricot. Very good concentration. somehow seemed like a dessert wine fighting its way to be less sweet. Wonderful now, but I look forward to trying this again in another decade+.
October 5, 2017 - Yeah, faantastic. Honey golden brown in color. Beautiful nose with honey, caramel and nuts. On the palate, amazing honeyed texture. Great peppery, slightly spicy sweetness, followed by great acidity. Nice sticky sweetness...
Been open for a four days now (in the fridge in the intervening time), and shows no signs of budging. The color really gives away the nose with a nutty honey character, but the really intriguing thing about this is spice on the mid and finish: like peppercorns confit in a simple syrup, and then ground to a fine powder.
August 8, 2016 - Rich but with nice acid underpinning the sweetness. Notes of marmalade, honey, and dusty soil. Good balance. Long finish with a slight bitterness at the very end detracting only slightly from the overall experience.
March 9, 2014 - 10+ Year Old Frenchies (Bistro Dre, Chicago, IL): Tasted double blind. Gorgeous nose is layered and complex with rich sweet white fruits, hard candy notes and honey. Palate is all about power and richness. Big with lots of stuffing and length. Didn't show as much finesse as a 96 ZH Rotenberg PG VT served side by side.
December 7, 2013 - Birthday lunch for KG, Alex and William (Hua Ting, Orchard Hotel): Far more backward than the last bottle we had - this was almost primary, as much an impressive show power and potential as it was about real enjoyment. It had an amazing nose, with richly layered aromas of orange marmalade and honey, apricots and lychees, with twists of orange peel and flowers and some exotic spice notes around the edges -very nice stuff. The palate was rather less developed though. The attack started out pretty open, with a nice fresh note of apricots and peaches spiked with orange peel. I loved the texture on this, creamy, melting, yet still pure and effortlessly balanced. However, it was still rather monolithic on the midpalate onwards, showing rich, thick, honeyed notes that more or less coated the mouth - it was still very sweet, with primary sugars still showing all the way into a long, sticky finish, where a nice drift of spice emerged. Very impressive, but this seemed way too young. I wrote that the last bottle seemed ready for drinking, but this was far from that. It could be a whole host of factors, primary amongst them the food pairing and the fact that we had more time to watch the last bottle develop in the glass. Ideally though, I would leave this aside for another 5 years at the very least, although I suspect 8-10 years would be closer to the mark.
July 26, 2013 - Can my wine log really be correct in that I have not had this in about 9 years? I know that last time I felt it was entering an awkward stage but 9 years seems an awful long time for me to go between bottles of any ZH. In either case I find myself alone this weekend while Dena is at a trade show in Orlando and this bottle was calling out to me for an after dinner drink. A bright and inviting orange gold upon pouring. Whether the bottle 9 years ago was slightly off or if the wine truly was in an awkward time period, that period is over. Overwhelmingly a wine of it's soil with great notes of peat moss and liquid minerals. The nectar enters the mouth with a slight twinge of acidity that is very quickly matched by a honeyed sweetness that provides a laser like balance. More honey and lemons arrive and start to fan out on the extremely long finish. Still quite youthful but also eminently drinkable at this point. It is hard to see this ever entering a phase where it won't drink at least very well. It's just a matter of how much secondary development one wants from this wine which I believe will present itself in a lessening of the sweetness and an even more pronounced Rangen signature. Will likely drink well for an additional 40 years and still has upward potential from it's current state. 50+13+14+9+9=95+
August 7, 2012 - Great showing here too! This capped off a long day nicely with an explosive nose of tropical fruits, honey, and a hint of petrol. Beautiful dark golden color. Also very Sauternes like, minus the typical buttery and brown sugar notes that typically accompany those wines. Apricot, nectarine, orange, pineapple, and honey grace what is a very smooth and voluptuous sweet wine in the mouth. Long yet elegant finish round out a great wine that is very drinkable now but also has a very long life ahead. Great now, but there's no hurry to drink.