WTN: Three German Rieslings in September

With dinner sometime in September, three bottles Rainer and I opened for my mom, and which we had with delicious sushi.

Daniel Vollenweider Riesling Spätlese Gold Capsule #03 Wolfer Goldgrube 2006
Thanks to Rainer. Medium golden green. Like a light Auslese, fairly sweet, with the baby fat but also the balance that should make it seem more Spätlese-like with bottle age. Still holds a little CO2. A tiny botrytis kiss perhaps, fine botrytis. Grape juice- or must-like. Lovely blossoms, blackcurrant cough drop, mineral dust, complex lemon zest, apple, some golden sultanas, pineapple and melon – a bit Weil-like. Quite long on the finish. Nice purity. Have to agree with Rainer this is one of the wines of the vintage, on a similar level as Weil’s Turmberg Spätlese. Tasty! My mother loved it, too. More noticeable, clean, vanilla stick-scented botrytis after 12 hours of airing in the fridge. Smooth and harmonious. Rating: 91+/92

Robert Weil Riesling Spätlese #009 Kiedricher Gräfenberg 2006
Bit paler colour than that of the Vollenweider. More concentrated and structured, more minerally. Clean, a bit closed on the nose, most impressive on the palate, nice body, denser and longer than the Vollenweider Gold Capsule. High-toned fruit, white blossoms, sweet honey dew melon. Even better than we remembered. Oilier and more botrytised, as a result less crystalline in character than the 2005. More white currant with airing. Longer on fruity-aromatic acids than the Vollenweider, more viscosity, creamier. Rating: 92+/93+?

Markus Molitor Riesling Auslese** #27 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr 2001
Half bottle thanks to Rainer. It is a few years ago since I last had this, seems rather evolved for a 2001 (more so than Molitor’s 1994s, Rainer claims). Top notes of earth and fresh mussel. Wet stone, some veggie- and mushroom-like finesse notes to herb- and lightly spring flower-based fruit. Less concentrated, complex than the previous two wines, a bit light in the middle, and shorter. Finesse notes of leek and beurre noisette with airing. Definitely early-mature. Rating: 88

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

[David M. Bueker]

I've been exploring the wines of Molitor over the last year or so (see my note on the 2005 version of the wine you had in my "Perfect" thread), and while I like them a lot I just cannot warm up to them emotionally. They seem a bit soulless, much like Selbach-Oster. Great for drinking but intellectually unfulfilling.

Back when I used to say that about Selbach-Oster, remember people used to virtually tar and feather me?

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

[David M. Bueker]

Back when I used to say that about Selbach-Oster, remember people used to virtually tar and feather me?

Yes - I think I provided the feathers. I will say that the last two vintages at Selbach have been much more impressive, at least in the starred spatlese and auslese ranges. Perhaps Johannes is more open to a little risk taking than dear, departed Hans was.

To Both Daves:

Nice discussion concerning the styles of Molitor and Selbach-Oster. Now an open (and perhaps not-so-easy to answer) question: Who would be your "go-to" producers for the more soulful and intellectual styles?

Thanks.

Dave Mo

[David M. Bueker]

Well there's certainly J. J. Prum, though one has to wait out that extended period where they are like drinking wine in a suphur mine. Vigorous decanting can and does help.

Other more "soulful" producers for me include Rheinhold Haart & Willi Schaefer to name two on the Mosel.

This question requires deep thought (and a glass of Riesling).

In terms of "soul" alone, Egon Müller's wines can probably not be beaten. It sometimes strikes me as sickening that what really are "only" down-to-earth natural-tasting wines have to be so expensive, and why not everyone manages to make wines like that, but there are others. We (my friends and me) used to hold Joh. Jos. Prüm and Fritz Haag (and others) in similarly high regard as far as the combination of intellectualism every bacchanalian quality you can think of is concerned, but one seems to have to concentrate on ones far up the ladder (expensive ones) to get what one used to get on every level (qualitatively, not in terms of residual sweetness) twenty years or so ago.

Other producers will make a wine that "offers everything" as I usually call that once in a while, certainly top producers such as Robert Weil achieve that on a rather regular basis, but to some, intellectuality is directly connected to a somewhat drier if not even unbotrytised style, where nothing gets between the taster and the wine's minerality. To me of course, that alone would not yet qualify as wine having or exhibiting "soul". That term I'd only attribute to wines whose personality grabs your attention and won't let go (i.e. you won't forget either). It's what's at the other end of the spectrum from superficiality.

Most top producers manage to make a wine like that once in a while, although some favour winemaking styles that seem to make it impossible to happen unless by mistake (Keller, Selbach, Molitor etc. - producer whom no one would think of as "lesser" ones, but whose wines won't speak to one as a truly fascinating piece of art). None of them manages to make wines that will rock your world in that sense exclusively - but it's probably true that Egon Müller's, in their apparent, down-to-earth natural simplicity achieve this more often than anyone else's. They're like Romanée-Conti wines in this regard.

If there is any justification at all that such wines are so ridiculously expensive (apart from availability, a plethora of wealthy Asian collectors etc.), I couldn't think of another, but then I'm afraid, qualities such as subtlety and finesse, which seem to be what the road to "intellectuality" and "soul" is paved with, are lost on most modern tasters anyhow.

David Buekers suggestion to try some Reinhold Haart and Willi Schaefer seems to me as good a starting point as any, although Haart has rarely made a wine anymore in recent vintages that speaks to the soul on that quasi-transcendental level. The same applies to Dönnhoff, Grünhaus (von Schubert), Fritz Haag, Prüm, Weil, Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) - they're all potential sources for such wines, you've merely got to get lucky (or read posts by people who mind what to the quantity-obsessed majority, sadly, appears to be no more than a detail).

Makes me sad to think, by the way, that some sources for such wines, Schloss Vollrads, Schloss Johannisberg, Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch, Christoffel etc. seem to have dried up compared to when many years ago, they still offered such wines on a yearly basis. Oh well...

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

[David M. Bueker]

Egon Muller is a very good source, but sadly the availability of anything other than QbA and Kabinett for me is lacking. A relatively recent bottle of Muller's 1995 Scharzhofberger Kabinett spoke to me more of its bones than its soul.

Donnhoff is interesting as you and I see that producer in different lights. I am frequently moved by his wines (even some of the "lesser" ones), and you rarely so, except perhaps with some gold capsules from the Brucke if I recall correctly.

It may very well be that one has to be sympathetic to a producer's style to feel their wines show soul. Much like David, I am not at all sympathetic to Keller's style, and while I admire the quality he produces I rarely am inclined to purchase a bottle for myself. Staying with Riesling but moving away from Germany, I was never fond of Trimbach until I had the chance to drink (not just taste) the 1990 CFE VT. That wine opened the doors for me, and I have found a feel and love for the wines of Trimbach ever since.

Obviously there is no disagreement when it comes to Trimbach's CFE and CSH from top vintages - the reason I'd not mentioned them is that they're not German. As to Dönnhoff, you've always been making more of our "disagreement" than I find it deserves: he's one of the top dozen or so producers and I have always said so. What neither I nor any of my Riesling-loving friends over here, nor even Hermann Dönnhoff himself understand is why some American critics have singled him out as being superior to that other top dozen or so producers - they're doing him too much honour, so much so he once told me it makes him feel uneasy facing other the top vintners sometimes, even though the hype is none of his doing. What's more important perhaps is that very few producers' wines improve with age in the true sense of the term - wines that keep (= won't go downhill/over the hill) and/or mature in bottle (= loose primary fruit, acquire tertiarly characteristics), but where there is little to gain from holding on to them other than to see them in different guise, are not the ones that are truly worth all the patience and cellar space. Some wines bowle one over with additional complexity and hitherto unnoticeable depth so that it would seem a comparative pity to drink them all up in their fruit phase - such wines don't just reawaken from their dormant, closed phase and taste different. Dönnhoff's wines rarely achieve that below a certain Prädikat (or even VdP-Auction bottling) level - but then, almost no one's wines do. What I am preaching is not to buy one and not the other producers' wines, but to buy some wines to drink young and others to keep, and only very few for either purpose. Finally, as to which of Dönnhoff's sites I tend to like best, those would be Hermannshöhle and Brücke primarily, usually followed by Kirschheck, Felsenberg and Leistenberg. As to Prädikate, it's not a secret that his VdP-Auction icewines are often among the most remarkable of all, but that doesn't mean I like Eiswein better than e.g. Spätlesen and high-grade Auslesen (really my favourite two Prädikate in general anyhow).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

[David M. Bueker]

We agree on the inherent quality of Donnhoff's wines. I think that more positive development happens to them with cellar time than you do. While we somewhat disagree, it's all in good fun and I findthe back and forth discussion to be fascinating.

My thoughts on the 1989 Hermannshohle Auslese convey my feelings -

http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?t=11182&highlight=perfect