By Gerardo Corleone – After a hard day of work this was just the right thing to do!
We had a big tasting with dry and off dry Rieslings from Mosel and Rheinhessen.
These are my 3 favourites and oh wonder – 2 were noble sweet! I will start with the dry one, which comes from the Incredible Braunewell Brothers (Essenheim, Rheinhessen).
It is of course not the first wine from this producer, but they always confirm their great quality.
OUTSTANDING DRY RIESLING HERE – Only an average yield of 28 hl/ha for this one and you can see it: super long and creamy legs.
Incredibly complex bouquet full of ripe citrus fruit, dried sage, nectarine and some lovely hints of crushed stones and petrol.
As already suggested the wine has a really creamy and silky mouthfeel. A great combo of seriously fruity and stoney-mineral elements hit the palate together with a crispy acidity.
Zero grams of residual sugar here – rare for a Riesling, but it fits perfectly to the balanced overall appearance.
A persistent salty-dry finish makes it even more pleasant! Reminds me of some good GG! Only sold in Magnum bottles – be fast!
Rating:
Bouquet: 2,5/3
Palate: 6/7
Finish: 2/3
Overall harmony: 6.5/7
Rating: 17/20 – Excellent wine!
Drink: Now or store it for another couple of years!
Now off to the sweet one’s. The first one I want to talk about is the still really young Auslese by famous Mosel-producer Willi Schäfer. This comes from the pretty prestigious single vineyard Graacher Domprobst. When I told a good friend of mine (who is also a Mosel.producer) that I’m planning to open this one, he immidiately said in a very harsh tone: That’s a “Kindermord” (Child murder)!
He was right, but this still really young wine performed so well and is already going into the right direction!
A Defensive, but lovely-elegant bouquet with a mix of ripe stonefruit, citruspeel, wet herbs and some smokey-earthy notes tells you how young it is.
Pretty light mouthfeel for an Auslese here! This time there is a strong peach-apricot-passion fruit combo which fits perfectly to the still young, but well integrated acidity.
Ripe lemons and some spicy ginger form a delicious and pretty persistent finish.
Rating:
Bouquet: 2,5/3
Palate: 5,5/7
Finish: 2/3
Overall harmony: 6/7
Rating: 16/20 – Really good wine!
Drink: Already nice (if you can’t wait like me) but it will definitely be even nicer in 10-12 years!
Last, but not least the real highlight of the evening: A Beerenauslese from 1989 – but if you want a to get to a treasure like this, you have to pass “some” obstacles.
In this case I had to push in the cork, to get this liquid gold out of the bottle. Not the youngest anymore, but still delivering!
Amber-golden coloured (like a ripe Sherry) with some really looooong legs.
Roasted nutmeg, dried peach, apricot jam, acacia honey and citrus confit in this lovely bouquet – No petrol, no fungus!
Super smooth and silky mouthfeel with lots of apricot jam, brown sugar and caramellized lemon peel.Still showing a lively acidity, which balances the juicy residual sugar in a great way.
Elegant and longlasting finish with sweet spots of honey and salty caramell everywhere – Just great!
Rating:
Bouquet: 2,5/3
Palate: 6/7
Finish: 2,5/3
Overall harmony: 6/7
Rating: 17/20 – Excellent wine!
Drink: Drink now or never – definetely on its peak!