WTN: 2001 JJ Prum Kabinett

[Jenise]

This wine's drinking great right now: deep golden yellow wiht racy lime juice, lime peel, fresh ginger and coconut. Not as complex as riesling can be, but big and bold for a seven year old kabinett and a perfect match for a lamb shank done in an Indian style with which big and bold would trump subtle and complex in every way imaginable. Should hold for a couple years at this stage, but why wait?

Many thanks for that! I got a few of these still around and will start to pop them!

[David M. Bueker]

The 2001 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett I had two weeks ago was also really good.

Is your cellar active or passive? I ask because the bottle I had 2 weeks ago (not mine) came from a passive cellar & was more developed (and therefore more open) than almost anything else we tasted that day.

[Jenise]

The 2001 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett I had two weeks ago was also really good.

Is your cellar active or passive? I ask because the bottle I had 2 weeks ago (not mine) came from a passive cellar & was more developed (and therefore more open) than almost anything else we tasted that day.

This was also a Wehlener Sonnenuhr--are there Prum Kabinetts that are not?

Anyway, we keep our cellar at 60F year round, which requires mechanical cooling in the summer but not the rest of year. I've owned this bottle about four-five years.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for the info.

There is sometimes a non-Sonnenuhr Kabinett, but it sounds like never again, as Katharina Prum thought it confused the market.

Of course they also make a Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett.

As for the cellar, I am finding more and more that 3-5 degrees makes a big difference. My Dad keeps his cellar around 60 degrees, and wines are more developed (not in any way damaged) than those coming out of my cellar that hovers at 55 in winter and 57 in summer. I see the same results with other, very slightly warmer, cellars.

As for the cellar, I am finding more and more that 3-5 degrees makes a big difference. My Dad keeps his cellar around 60 degrees, and wines are more developed (not in any way damaged) than those coming out of my cellar that hovers at 55 in winter and 57 in summer. I see the same results with other, very slightly warmer, cellars.

I hoped that would be the case. I once kept my cellar at 57. Two years ago, at age 67, I turned it up to a constant 60 degrees, and may even bump it up a degree or two the older I get. After all, this stuff is for me - not my kids. I love them, but my goal is to leave them with nothing (in my cellar).

Jenise,

Did you decant the Prum? It is one of the few whites (other than white Burg) that seem to benefit from a couple of hours in a decanter in my opinion.

Thanks for the info.

There is sometimes a non-Sonnenuhr Kabinett, but it sounds like never again, as Katharina Prum thought it confused the market.

Of course they also make a Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett.

As for the cellar, I am finding more and more that 3-5 degrees makes a big difference. My Dad keeps his cellar around 60 degrees, and wines are more developed (not in any way damaged) than those coming out of my cellar that hovers at 55 in winter and 57 in summer. I see the same results with other, very slightly warmer, cellars.

I had assumed the WS as well but had also forgotten the standard Kabinett. They sold the 2005 in Kabinett alone form in Boston for about $25 a bottle and I thought that it was pretty decent as well. Not sure why they think it would confuse the market. I was just happy that there was a close to $20 JJ Prum bottle that I could have as a nice summer house wine. Too bad that there will not be more in the future.

I had assumed the WS as well but had also forgotten the standard Kabinett. They sold the 2005 in Kabinett alone form in Boston for about $25 a bottle and I thought that it was pretty decent as well. Not sure why they think it would confuse the market. I was just happy that there was a close to $20 JJ Prum bottle that I could have as a nice summer house wine. Too bad that there will not be more in the future.

I thought JJ Prum made no Kabinett in 05 (or 06)?

The Estate made an Estate or Wehlener Kabinett (can't remember how they labelled it) from fruit out of the Wehlener Klosterberg in a cooler side valley.

[David M. Bueker]

The Estate made an Estate or Wehlener Kabinett (can't remember how they labelled it) from fruit out of the Wehlener Klosterberg in a cooler side valley.

In the USA it was an Estate Kabinett. I should be clearer in that what Katharina said they would never do again is release a Wehlener Kabinett in the USA. Of course they will still do Wehlener Sonnenuhr as conditions permit, and I doubt they would eliminate the estate wine, though maybe they won't sell it here.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

Did you decant the Prum? It is one of the few whites (other than white Burg) that seem to benefit from a couple of hours in a decanter in my opinion.

No, just popped and poured.

OH, and another note for David Bueker and Michael K, and this is important: I completely forgot that I did not get this bottle out of my cellar. Rather, it had been stored passively (about 65 year round) in a cool closet that came with this house, a so-called wine closet, a dreadfully inefficient and naive design that allowed for storage of just 36 bottles in a space that could have held 150 and which we therefore repurposed to holding life's little ersatz semi-flat things you don't know where else to put, like jigsaw puzzles and life jackets. Somehow three unrelated bottles got put in there about four years ago, judging by the event that caused the pile of plastic leis it was buried under to come into our lives, and this was one.

[David M. Bueker]

A-ha! Now it all makes sense.

[Jenise]

A-ha! Now it all makes sense.

I feel stupid for remembering it so late, but yesterday when Bob asked me what to do with the Muscadet and a Burgundy that also came out of that closet but were just left on a counter, I suddenly could see, like a photograph, those plus the third bottle as I unearthed them, and the third bottle was that Prum. It ended up in the kitchen fridge apart from the other two, and I'd likely never have remembered had Bob not nudged the memory loose.