2021 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 92.8 points

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  5/12/2024 - VincentMorey Likes this wine:

  While the retail pricing of this has gone up, it was great fun to taste the vintage and young. A bit lighter on the aromatics but definitely obvious stone fruit, green apples, lemon, light florals and just barely protruding honey. A touch of reduction backed by a most delightful bracing mouth watering acidity that's quite elegant, that also cleans the fruit at the start and all the way into the finish. Despite this being a Spatlese, there is just about enough residual sugar to make it feel like it is not (perhaps of the cool vintage), though the sourness, tartness, and acidity are more prominent, but in a balanced and great way. With time, mineral notes come forth (the essence of the wine). The sour forward elegance that has a small hint of meyer lemon like bitterness, makes this wine even more addicting. At this young age it needs a more specific food profile match, but is quite pleasurable to enjoy as is. This acidity will ensure mid to long term aging, though I can't imagine now how this will be with another 8 to 10 years, and what will happen to the fruit. Fascinating wine, I look forward to tasting 2022 young as a comparison.

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  3/26/2024 - Bolognese Diner Likes this wine: 94 Points

  To drink with everything: cheeses, seafood, dressings and sauces, cold cuts. Find me something even more versatile.
  
  Da bere con tutto: formaggi, frutti di mare, condimenti e salse, salumi. Trovami qualcosa di più versatile.

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  2/21/2024 - DevenStephens Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Absolutely delicious! The nose had mango sorbet, peaches, oranges, pineapple. The palate was smooth but with high acidity. Less rich than the Kabinett and honestly I preferred the Spatlese. Honey and melon on the palate as well. Complex, delicious and pairs so well with so many different food types. I love Prum, great wine

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  8/3/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 Points

  The 2021 has generally been regarded as a classic vintage that represented a triumph over tricky conditions for much of the growing season. In my schlurpingks (this is a very old German wine guzzling term) to date, I have found the kabinett Rieslings to be very good, but I have also been a little troubled by some green apple (Malic acid?) that means the wines teeter on the brink of being unbalanced.
  
  In a flash of inspiration I decided that this might be a great combination with the extra residual sugar in Spätlese and Auslese styles and so I grabbed the Kabinett, Spat and Aus from Prum's Graacher Himelreich to see and then hopped in the bath, pre-filled with warm Riesling to await results.
  
  'Eureka!' I cried out in ecstasy as I tried this wine. This was a Saxon word meaning 'Dashed good show, this wine, what?', coined by Ritter von Arkimedes and later misappropriated by a dreadful Greek geek of similar name.
  
  This is a really beautiful wine. Here the lively, slightly sour acid, combines brilliantly with the residual sugar and tropical fruits (I am sure I am getting mango and lychees and apple) to create a haunting, as opposed to haughty (that would be the Kabinett) beauty. Prum is always relatively delicate and light on its feet and this wine continues the tradition.
  
  Spätlese is a polarising style, but I love it because the best Moselle styles, like Prum, always give you an acid balance that mean the wine is not cloying, or truly 'sweet' - it is like eating fruit picked in your garden a moment ago; alive, sensual and gorgeous.
  
  I can see this wine doing great things with bottle age, but I have trouble keeping my hands off them young.

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  7/31/2023 - FiggySmalls wrote:

  by the glass at Gravitas DC. bottle had been open. drank rather rounded and the nose wasn't popping. very tasty but a disappointing showing.
  
  paired well with their Vietnamese fried fish

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