Back to 1975

I still have several 1975 Rieslings from Germany. If properly stored, most of auslesen and higher from the better estates, especially in the Mosel/Saar still are drinking very well and many will last. At the auslese level, I have tasted the following good ones within the past few years:

Bernkasteler Doctor,Thansh; Brauneberger Juffer,Thanish; Graacher Himmelreich, J.J. Prum; Wehlener Sonnenuhr( regular and long gold capsule),J.J. Prum; Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg

I am sure there must be many more.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net from my email address. Then add snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com . I do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

Funny that you mention it - I asked the same question not too long ago. I ended up buying a 1975 Gruaud-Larose on the recommendation of others in the group.

The relevant thread is here:

Champagne!!!

Dimitri

Thanisch.

Scnr, M.

75 claret, esp LLC good auslese my eldest is 30 this year as well, musy have been the hot summer of 75

JT

The hot summer was 1976. The summer of 1975 wasn't hot*), but also on the dry side.

*) in Europe.

M.

Another vote for '75 Leoville Las Cases. Had a bottle 2 weeks ago for my girlfriend's 30th - it was great, and matched beautifully with a rack of lamb.

The advise from the previous thread on this group was most helpful with this choice. It was also surprising how reasonable the price was relative to current vintages.

dale m.

Hi Everyone,

I don't think I've posted in this group before, but enjoying reading it quite a bit. I was surprised to read the post below that a 30 year old Riesling could not only be good, but in this case great. I thought white wines were usually consumed young - is that true most of the time?

Thanks for educating me =)

Joe Costlow

Salut/Hi Cygnus,

le/on Sun, 27 Feb 2005 01:11:48 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

Many more white wines can be drunk with some bottle age than you might think. It's a common truism that red wines need age and white wines don't. Like all truisms, there is a basis of fact.

OK. As a general rule, sweet wines not only live a long time, but many, especially those whose sweetness comes from "Noble Rot" (aka botrytis), improve dramatically. No, let's be more precise. They _change_ dramatically, losing fresh fruitiness, and gaining depth and complexity. Young sweet botrytised wines are so delicious that it is unfair only to say that they _improve_.

Sweet white wines whose sweetness comes about because the grapes are dried by letting them hang on the vine a long time, or because the wine maker has stopped their fermentation by adding alcohol, are less imporoved by age, in general. (In reds of that type, don't forget port).

Amongst European dry whites, some demand aging, notably the classic whites made from Chardonnay in Burgundy, and the wines made from the Chenin Blanc on the Loire and the great Rhine, Mosel, Saar and Ruwer wines. Lesser wines can take more aging than you might think, but may not necessarily be improved by it. I think it's true to say that Italian whites resist aging less well as they lose the fresh attractiveness they have when young, without gaining much complexity. But I'd suggest that even from Italy there are VERY few wines which won't keep a couple of years.

Hope the above continues the process.

yes 76 was the really hot one, but in the UK 75 was also wonderful

Thank you both, Nils and Ian