A Raft of Rieslings

Jun 18, 2010 5 Replies

Riesling notes



Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs à Ay Champagne NV – bit of colour, lots of acidity, some complexity. Decent


2008 Sperling Old Vines Riesling (BC)slight lemon and petrol nose, very lemony and acidic in the mouth, over all quite decent.


2005 Hirsch Heiligenstein Zobing Kamptal Riesling (Austria) – medium colour, a ton of petrol in the nose, lots of acidity, maybe just a tad short on mid-palate fruit.


2005 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese – grapefruit in the nose, slight spritz, some evident R, nice balance, some lime coming in late, full mouth feel. Nose loses grapefruit and picks up more petrol with time. Nice.


2004 Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese – young bright wine with apple nose, a little lively spritz and what seemed more like a Spatlese level of RS.


1993 Zilliken Saarberger Rausch Spatlese – the nose was more lemon than lime, with a hint of spice and honey, medium bodied, clean finish, ready.


1976 Ficht-Bergweiler Erben Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese – amber colour, some petrol but also a notable menthol that turns more to peppermint with time, intense melange of flavours including apricot, good length. This is why I risk keeping these wines so long – when you hit it there is no comparison.


1983 Hohe Domkirch Scharzhofberger Auslese – not much nose at first, then a burnt sugar caramel nose, not as bright or interesting as the
76, with more RS and less acidity.


2001 Pauly Birgweiler Bernkasteler Badstube – damn – didn’t make a note of this QMP wine – probably Auslese. Lighter middle of the road wine with good balance, but not in the right order after the old wines.


2002 Zind Humbrecht Herrenweg de Turkheim – medium colour and very dry after the German wines with good fruit concentration and clean finish, seeming a little austere after the fuller sweeter Germans.


1999 Dr. Dahlem Erben Oppenheimer Sacktrager Eiswein – a very unusual wine! The nose was salty black olive tapenade (I swear!) with a sweet spicy herbal element, not too sweet (probably attained auslese level) and some licorice in the finish. Not everyone liked this but it was at least interesting!


Nice lineup. Did not know you could use Ries in BdB Champs :-)

Last week in Munich at the excellent Dukatz I had a bottle of Egon Müller Scharzhof. For an entry level wine, I found it had the same superb balance as the pricier EMs, not quite as concentrated but certainly mineral. I was with a bunch of people not used to german wines, and they loved it.

Nice notes. There were a bunch of 93/94 Zillikens around NY a couple years ago, quite good. My notes on the 93 (I had #8, not sure if they did more than one) were similar to yours,.

Har har. We had to have something to ease our palates into the tasting, so why not a bit of bubble? It would have been Sekt, had we been able to find anything really worthwhile ('No sekts please, we're British...'")

On 18/06/2010 16:20, Bill S. wrote: ('No sekts please, we're

LOL

After all of those sweet Rieslings, it seems you needed something else to clear the palate and end the tasting session. Perhaps Furst Bismark Original Dopple Korn would be the perfect ending :-). But take it easy if you never have had it before. Like Bismark for which this spirit is named, it has considerable authority. It can be difficult to find in the US, but I have bought it from N.J.. I don't know how available it is in Canada.

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