Picked this up when visiting the vineyard a few years ago. PnP. ABV 7.5%. AP 6 06. Beautiful light copper in color. Explosive floral nose, a bunch of tropical fruits soaring from the glass on get-go, could smell this for hours. Very clean, no petrol. Still fairly sweet on the palate, yet to reach the ethereal non-sweet stage of the ‘95 vintage tasted a few years ago. But this was still drinking beautifully, an exceptional Auslese with many years to go.
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Der Wein strotzt nur so von feinem, pulvrigen Weinstein, der den Wein etwas trübt. Ja, ich hätte ihn etwas ruhen lassen sollen, aber ich wollte nicht mehr warten. In der Nase eine wunderbare Orgie von exotischer, reifer Frucht, Botrytisaromen, etwas feine Vanille, ein paar Kräutern und Blüten und etwas dezentem Nagellackentferner. Am Gaumen ist der Wein beinahe schmerzhaft schön und intensiv: die Süße wird von der reifen, beinahe extremen Säure perfekt ausbalanciert. Eine Melange von verschiedensten, frisch gepressten Fruchtsäften ergießt sich in den Mund: reife Ananas, Mango, Papaya. Die Textur ist wunderbar cremig, aber niemals ölig. Unglaubliche Spannung und eine wunderbare Balance. Obwohl die halbe Flasche vermutlich mehr Zucker als eine Kiste Cola enthält, ist der Wein niemals pappig oder klebrig. Der Abgang ist unglaublich lang und dominiert von klarer, reiner Frucht.
Ich würde sagen, dass der Wein in ca. 5+ Jahren beginnt, seinen Höhepunkt zu erreichen und dann auf diesem für mehrere Dekaden verbleibt.
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This wine was shared with K an CW the weekend of the 17 th approx of September, in honor of Barbara T's life and death. Cloudy with fine tartrate-crystal; yellow golden brown. Has strong fruity-herbaceous apricot and light tobacco-wrapper (Cameroon). Also plenty of integrated diesel. Very powerful apple-acid and clean punchy sweetness. 95/100. Seems to be a good bottle for celebrating a wake. Actually needs about 5-10 more years to gain finesse, dry out a tad, and for acidity to integrate.
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at Yoram's BD dinner amazing wine, with low alcohol, but very unique citrus and other flavours, lot of crystal particles at the bottom, fresh fruity-herbal-spicy aromas, juicy on the palate, and v-e-r-y long aftertaste that kept for hours (especially in memory). Super!
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Latté was nearly killed by a dog while just a few weeks old and proudly bore a prominent scarred ear till his death. He was so sick when we first got him that he couldn't even hold up his head; almost exsanguinated with fleas, in septic shock, and yet was so excitedly glad to see us the first time that we ever saw him, as playful as the puppy he thought he was. (We had decided we wanted a female, so his little sister was adopted first; him a week later, when I just couldn't ignore the memory of him). He had a huge heart, and was a great cat and the obvious leader of the family, with its two other cats and two big clumsy non-cats.
He is greatly missed already and I confess to a groan and many a tear when I think that he was here this morning with us, and is no more. He deserved the finest bottle I could put hand to tonight with our Japanese dinner we ordered in, not wanting to cook or go out.
Life is so fragile; we must attend to it and use and enjoy every moment, else we do poor service to the memory of the best no longer among us, who never needed to be reminded of these things. Perhaps our consolation is that we will not long be separated from any of 'The Dead of the House' as Hanna Green would have it. (94 pts.)
Followup note at 48 hours: Wine still has not integrated, but is full of gooseberry and currant, with a certain green sauvage. The sheer power of this wine is now even a little overwhelming. Will taste again in another 24-48 hours. 94 plus.
At day 7 this wine has gotten a second wind. The prominent acids and almost wincing-level sweetness is not lonely now, with lemon-lime, grapefruit, and spicy cinnamon, lined with a funk which is at first a bit rough and then turns to pure umami, and then running to a hint of pine smoke. If you don't mind the piles of crunchy tartrates, it's a mile long on the palate, tasting of leather, smoke, and a clean slate. The merest drop on the lips is enough to delight. We've been at it for two hours with about 2 ounces that were left in the bottle.
it breathes sexy red slate and old red continent, as Reinhard Löwenstein would say, reminding one somewhat of a Uhlen Rothberg from that estimable Winningen grower.
see next note
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Grievously, Latté, one of our two, two-year-old feline litter mates died suddenly today when being taken to the vet for an exam, in the car a few seconds before we reached the parking lot, and could not be resuscitated despite all efforts.
This required a great bottle to help ease our pain, and what could do so better than this best nonauction Auslese from Zilliken in the 2005 range? The wine cost 56 Euros per half bottle in 2007 at Weinhaus Porn in Bernkastel. Equivalent retail value might be about $90 in the US if you shopped carefully.
Tasting note, with comparison of Zweisel Tritan Red Wine with Riedel Riesling (The Riedel Riesling won hands-down, as I should have known.) Bottle with wine-stained label with slight wrinkle in capsule. When I presented it to Hanno Zilliken before the VDP Großer Ring Auction in Trier September 2007 for his autograph, he expressed dismay at its condition and offered to replace it. Sadly, it was too late to do that; we were on our way out that night. Cork was excellent but like many Zilliken wines it was jammed in from being oversize and it took four piercings with a waiter's friend, a Scruple, a carbon dioxide syringe, and a pronged tiré-bouchon.
Wine intense brilliant refractive green-gold with strong orange highlights, quite glass-coating and thick despite low alcohol (7.5 pabv). Good amount of coarse Weinstein crystals in the bottom of the bottle. No spritz to tell of and some tiny noncrystalline stuff present in nearly all wines that are not force-filtered.
Aroma begins soaring from the glass as the cork is removed. Cork is wet a little over half-way up and appears to be in good shape. Opens with green transparent apple, slightly underripe peach, what seems like a slight oxidative note of caramel or honey or bottle funk, quickly blown off, and a little hollowness in the nose which began to fill out right away. Bitter lime-peel and lime juice evidenced as mild grapefruit peel. This follows onto a hint of grassy geranium quickly swallowed up by other things.
Intensely sweet-sour (160 g/L rs; 12 (sic) g/l acidity reported) with a tactile, with a candied bitterness coating it, and a tactile firmness provide this wine with its positive but a little furry mouthfeel, and a touch of heat at first on the finish. Under all this one finds a river of fresh-squeezed apricot juice, continuing with a little redcurrant action as a buttress to the rest; this is not at all out of place in this part of the Saar, spicy and evident of red slate with a great deal of complexity in its structure.
At about two hours, the wine seems a bit less exotic in its coloration. However, the wine is showing some tobacco and a sort of fresh-smelling acidity and stoniness. Verbena, frequently found in these wines, and candied ginger predominate. The wine seems to fold back into itself for now.
Acidity is soaring, with a tense punch of residual that is very mouth-watering. It's got great spiciness and a touch of funk, well-focused and plenty transparent for its intensity. The finish is resinous but clean, with a little honey showing some Botrytis, but it's clean rot and is just a hint, not at all overwhelming. In a way it tastes something I imagine to be like tobacco candy. I've never dipped snuff and I'm sure it's a lot less fine than this flavor. The finish is kaleidoscopic with all the above flashing past the palate and brought together with a note something like sawn fresh pine boards.
This wine needs a year more just for post-bottling integration, and will drink thereafter well-kept at least 30 years. Drink 2011 through 2031 plus.
Barbara and I assume this wine would have lived at least until Latté's memorial a few days hence, so more will be posted here as it opens. You may have to put up with a few cat stories, however, from Latté's brokenhearted 'owner'. Maybe a second, different bottle (this one was unique to the cellar) will succor us.
Latté was a rescued cat with his female littlermate, Brevé, both of whom were cute as buttons and kept up a touching and hilarous litter-mate behavior to the end. Latté was a very special guy cat, who wasn't sure he might not be a dog on his worst days. He came when called and wanted to play 'fetch the mou'; the 'mou' in this case, as he referred to it, simply the red laser light from a carpenter's wall level. He had a huge desire to talk, and he would sit and make faces as the oddest noises came out of his mouth, in response to the slightest human speech. Of course he could understand us better than we could speak 'cat'. This morning he was amusing himself by finding an ant crawling on the floor and following it around, but his hunting behavior could often be his downfall, leading him to climb up where he wasn't supposed to be in search of some human food. He never could understand why it wasn't shared with him.
94 pts.)
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Drunk with christmas dinner 2007, great wine, superb mouthfeel, notes of raisins, rhubarb. Very fresh, this is still a baby. I will try to keep the next bottle at least for 5 years.
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7/29/2023 - AlyssaRock12 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Nose: apricot, candied ginger, golden craisin
Palate: white peach, apricot, candied ginger, baking spice; med body; med + acid
Overall: this stuff is just so delicious
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3/19/2022 - pclin wrote:
Picked this up when visiting the vineyard a few years ago. PnP. ABV 7.5%. AP 6 06. Beautiful light copper in color. Explosive floral nose, a bunch of tropical fruits soaring from the glass on get-go, could smell this for hours. Very clean, no petrol. Still fairly sweet on the palate, yet to reach the ethereal non-sweet stage of the ‘95 vintage tasted a few years ago. But this was still drinking beautifully, an exceptional Auslese with many years to go.
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5/8/2021 - Rani Likes this wine: 93 Points
Tasted blind. Tons of pineapple, medium gold color, very long, amazing acidity.
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4/12/2019 - NoTrollingerPlease Likes this wine: 96 Points
Der Wein strotzt nur so von feinem, pulvrigen Weinstein, der den Wein etwas trübt. Ja, ich hätte ihn etwas ruhen lassen sollen, aber ich wollte nicht mehr warten.
In der Nase eine wunderbare Orgie von exotischer, reifer Frucht, Botrytisaromen, etwas feine Vanille, ein paar Kräutern und Blüten und etwas dezentem Nagellackentferner.
Am Gaumen ist der Wein beinahe schmerzhaft schön und intensiv: die Süße wird von der reifen, beinahe extremen Säure perfekt ausbalanciert. Eine Melange von verschiedensten, frisch gepressten Fruchtsäften ergießt sich in den Mund: reife Ananas, Mango, Papaya. Die Textur ist wunderbar cremig, aber niemals ölig. Unglaubliche Spannung und eine wunderbare Balance. Obwohl die halbe Flasche vermutlich mehr Zucker als eine Kiste Cola enthält, ist der Wein niemals pappig oder klebrig. Der Abgang ist unglaublich lang und dominiert von klarer, reiner Frucht.
Ich würde sagen, dass der Wein in ca. 5+ Jahren beginnt, seinen Höhepunkt zu erreichen und dann auf diesem für mehrere Dekaden verbleibt.
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9/21/2016 - sweetstuff wrote: 95 Points
This wine was shared with K an CW the weekend of the 17 th approx of September, in honor of Barbara T's life and death. Cloudy with fine tartrate-crystal; yellow golden brown. Has strong fruity-herbaceous apricot and light tobacco-wrapper (Cameroon). Also plenty of integrated diesel. Very powerful apple-acid and clean punchy sweetness. 95/100. Seems to be a good bottle for celebrating a wake. Actually needs about 5-10 more years to gain finesse, dry out a tad, and for acidity to integrate.
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2/24/2013 - Yagil wrote: 93 Points
at Yoram's BD dinner
amazing wine, with low alcohol, but very unique citrus and other flavours, lot of crystal particles at the bottom, fresh fruity-herbal-spicy aromas, juicy on the palate, and v-e-r-y long aftertaste that kept for hours (especially in memory). Super!
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7/23/2010 - sweetstuff wrote: 94 Points
More from previous note
Latté was nearly killed by a dog while just a few weeks old and proudly bore a prominent scarred ear till his death. He was so sick when we first got him that he couldn't even hold up his head; almost exsanguinated with fleas, in septic shock, and yet was so excitedly glad to see us the first time that we ever saw him, as playful as the puppy he thought he was. (We had decided we wanted a female, so his little sister was adopted first; him a week later, when I just couldn't ignore the memory of him). He had a huge heart, and was a great cat and the obvious leader of the family, with its two other cats and two big clumsy non-cats.
He is greatly missed already and I confess to a groan and many a tear when I think that he was here this morning with us, and is no more. He deserved the finest bottle I could put hand to tonight with our Japanese dinner we ordered in, not wanting to cook or go out.
Life is so fragile; we must attend to it and use and enjoy every moment, else we do poor service to the memory of the best no longer among us, who never needed to be reminded of these things. Perhaps our consolation is that we will not long be separated from any of 'The Dead of the House' as Hanna Green would have it. (94 pts.)
Followup note at 48 hours: Wine still has not integrated, but is full of gooseberry and currant, with a certain green sauvage. The sheer power of this wine is now even a little overwhelming. Will taste again in another 24-48 hours. 94 plus.
At day 7 this wine has gotten a second wind. The prominent acids and almost wincing-level sweetness is not lonely now, with lemon-lime, grapefruit, and spicy cinnamon, lined with a funk which is at first a bit rough and then turns to pure umami, and then running to a hint of pine smoke. If you don't mind the piles of crunchy tartrates, it's a mile long on the palate, tasting of leather, smoke, and a clean slate. The merest drop on the lips is enough to delight. We've been at it for two hours with about 2 ounces that were left in the bottle.
it breathes sexy red slate and old red continent, as Reinhard Löwenstein would say, reminding one somewhat of a Uhlen Rothberg from that estimable Winningen grower.
see next note
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7/16/2010 - sweetstuff wrote: 94 Points
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q91/rieslingrat/LatteandBreveWatchDadSetUpNewLaptop.jpg
Grievously, Latté, one of our two, two-year-old feline litter mates died suddenly today when being taken to the vet for an exam, in the car a few seconds before we reached the parking lot, and could not be resuscitated despite all efforts.
This required a great bottle to help ease our pain, and what could do so better than this best nonauction Auslese from Zilliken in the 2005 range? The wine cost 56 Euros per half bottle in 2007 at Weinhaus Porn in Bernkastel. Equivalent retail value might be about $90 in the US if you shopped carefully.
Tasting note, with comparison of Zweisel Tritan Red Wine with Riedel Riesling (The Riedel Riesling won hands-down, as I should have known.) Bottle with wine-stained label with slight wrinkle in capsule. When I presented it to Hanno Zilliken before the VDP Großer Ring Auction in Trier September 2007 for his autograph, he expressed dismay at its condition and offered to replace it. Sadly, it was too late to do that; we were on our way out that night. Cork was excellent but like many Zilliken wines it was jammed in from being oversize and it took four piercings with a waiter's friend, a Scruple, a carbon dioxide syringe, and a pronged tiré-bouchon.
Wine intense brilliant refractive green-gold with strong orange highlights, quite glass-coating and thick despite low alcohol (7.5 pabv). Good amount of coarse Weinstein crystals in the bottom of the bottle. No spritz to tell of and some tiny noncrystalline stuff present in nearly all wines that are not force-filtered.
Aroma begins soaring from the glass as the cork is removed. Cork is wet a little over half-way up and appears to be in good shape. Opens with green transparent apple, slightly underripe peach, what seems like a slight oxidative note of caramel or honey or bottle funk, quickly blown off, and a little hollowness in the nose which began to fill out right away. Bitter lime-peel and lime juice evidenced as mild grapefruit peel. This follows onto a hint of grassy geranium quickly swallowed up by other things.
Intensely sweet-sour (160 g/L rs; 12 (sic) g/l acidity reported) with a tactile, with a candied bitterness coating it, and a tactile firmness provide this wine with its positive but a little furry mouthfeel, and a touch of heat at first on the finish. Under all this one finds a river of fresh-squeezed apricot juice, continuing with a little redcurrant action as a buttress to the rest; this is not at all out of place in this part of the Saar, spicy and evident of red slate with a great deal of complexity in its structure.
At about two hours, the wine seems a bit less exotic in its coloration. However, the wine is showing some tobacco and a sort of fresh-smelling acidity and stoniness. Verbena, frequently found in these wines, and candied ginger predominate. The wine seems to fold back into itself for now.
Acidity is soaring, with a tense punch of residual that is very mouth-watering. It's got great spiciness and a touch of funk, well-focused and plenty transparent for its intensity. The finish is resinous but clean, with a little honey showing some Botrytis, but it's clean rot and is just a hint, not at all overwhelming. In a way it tastes something I imagine to be like tobacco candy. I've never dipped snuff and I'm sure it's a lot less fine than this flavor. The finish is kaleidoscopic with all the above flashing past the palate and brought together with a note something like sawn fresh pine boards.
This wine needs a year more just for post-bottling integration, and will drink thereafter well-kept at least 30 years. Drink 2011 through 2031 plus.
Barbara and I assume this wine would have lived at least until Latté's memorial a few days hence, so more will be posted here as it opens. You may have to put up with a few cat stories, however, from Latté's brokenhearted 'owner'. Maybe a second, different bottle (this one was unique to the cellar) will succor us.
Latté was a rescued cat with his female littlermate, Brevé, both of whom were cute as buttons and kept up a touching and hilarous litter-mate behavior to the end. Latté was a very special guy cat, who wasn't sure he might not be a dog on his worst days. He came when called and wanted to play 'fetch the mou'; the 'mou' in this case, as he referred to it, simply the red laser light from a carpenter's wall level. He had a huge desire to talk, and he would sit and make faces as the oddest noises came out of his mouth, in response to the slightest human speech. Of course he could understand us better than we could speak 'cat'. This morning he was amusing himself by finding an ant crawling on the floor and following it around, but his hunting behavior could often be his downfall, leading him to climb up where he wasn't supposed to be in search of some human food. He never could understand why it wasn't shared with him.
94 pts.)
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3/27/2008 - mpoel wrote: 93 Points
Drunk with christmas dinner 2007, great wine, superb mouthfeel, notes of raisins, rhubarb. Very fresh, this is still a baby. I will try to keep the next bottle at least for 5 years.
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