Yesterday I visited some Wineries in the Nahe. I have had almost no experience with wines from this area so I was really excited because I was of to visit three top producers.
My brother and I started at Weingut Emrich-Schonleber. Here we received probably one of the best tastings I had in my life. Not only the quality was very high but we also tasted every wine on the list which means GG’s, a few BA’s, TBA, Eiswein but also some brilliant normal dry wines and spätleses and ausleses.
Some notes:
2007 Riesling Trocken: very fresh and stony on the nose and mouth, I liked this for what it was a fresh pure Riesling.
2007 “Mineral” Riesling Trocken: This wine had more body than the normal Riesling trocken but for me it was in the same style just a tad more serious.
After this came two other dry wines:
2007 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Riesling trocken: Fresh, mouthfilling, good acidity but not over the top.
2007 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling trocken: More structure and acidity than the previous wine. Will need a bit more time and is just another leaner style.
2007 Frühlingsplätchen Riesling GG: Very stony and mineral, not in a power style like everything here was very “drinkable” a quality in a wine that I embrace.
2007 Halenberg Riesling GG: Wow, I really liked this wine. Something in the nose that intrigued me and the taste followed the deep and multilayered quality the nose had. For me by far the most impressive dry wine we tasted.
2006 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling R: An halbtrocken wine, although this wine tastes almost dry you can feel the rs because we just tasted a whole line-up of really dry wines. I’m not sure if I’m correct but I felt there was quite an amount of botrytis in this wine. For me it had a typical nose of a 2006 wine and although the wine was in very good balance I’m not sure if I liked the bitterness and honeyed aspects this wine had for me. I ordered it anyhow because I’m very interested in seeing where this will go, I also want to embrace wines made between the really sweet and the really dry wines because for me they really ad something and are somehow really true to the place they come from.
2006 Bacchus Kabinett: At start I didn’t even now we got a wine made from the grape Bacchus since I had never heard of it. This wine tasted so different and brought for me a lot of thunder. A bowl of fruit and very fresh. For 5.50€ something I couldn’t pass on.
2007 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Riesling Spätlese: Light, fresh, very good balance fruit and acidity. A real step up compared with the kabinett and worth the extra few bucks.
2006/2007 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Spatlese: What to say about 2006? I’m still not sure. It was thicker than the 2007 but for me the 2007 was the much better wine. I bought both but if I had to choose I would go with the 2007 without a doubt. So pure, for me maybe the best wine we tasted here.
2007 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Riesling Auslese: I know the Auslese where again more without losing the “drink factor” but I cant remember much of this particulair wine.
2006 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Riesling Auslese**: WOW, what a brilliant wine. It is typical 2006 but with pure fresh fruit. All the wines I had from 2006 that had the two components of freshness and pureness combined with the botrytis are for me the best wines I had and I cant wait for these wines to be a bit older.
2007 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese: Can’t remember much apart from the fact this is no punishment to drink.
2006 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese**: I was not impressed by this effort and preferred all the other ausleses by far. For me this was to big without the depth, I hope I will be proven wrong (I bought some half bottles) and that this will age in a smaller monster that I can cope with.
2005 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese GK: For me this was a combination of the 2007 and 2006 wines. It had loads of power, loads of pure fruit, loads of acidity, not very drinkable and with an extremely long finish. (At 54Euros for an half bottle I can’t call this a bargain any more but I couldn’t resist to buy a small quantity anyway because it sure was impressive)
2006 Monziger Halenberg Riesling Beerenauslese: I loved this wine. So soft, like a Vicuña cloth covering your mouth. This wine has loads of depth, substance and creaminess without getting plump and tiring.
2005 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Riesling Beerenauslese: Compared with the 2006 this had a much linger finish filled with citrus fruits and other beautifull flavours. But as the 2006 made me emotional and really grabbed me I was just very impressed by this effort. These wines are not any more at a price level I can buy everything I like, respect, bring me to tears etc. so I made a decision and bought a bit of the 2006 halenberg BA and passed on this one.
2007 Monzinger Frühlingsplätchen Eiswein: Clean like a whistle, very tropical, lychee fruit, brilliant acidity, somehow this wine was lighter and heavier at the same time as the BA. Maybe because it lacks the creaminess and has more fruit and was in a way more pure and for me at the same level of greatness as the 2006BA.
At the end the wonderful lady that gave us the tasting opened a bottle of:
2005 Monziger Halenberg Riesling TBA: jeez, wouldn’t have believed it could get another notch more everything compared to the BA’s. Apparently it could. This wine was thick, a brilliant acidity and like all the 2005’s I have tasted here a finish that goes on and on. But like every wine at this I tasted, it is drinkable. What an achievement to make wines with so much substance without making them heavy. Bravo!
After this when she got the bill we took a sip of a bottle that stood there. A Koehler Ruprecht 1998 Auslese Trocken R. WOW, something totally different but I would kill someone to own a few bottles of this pure nectar. The nose was insane and also the taste was so fresh and light but with the substance of a wine with 14% alcohol.
This was the first tasting of the day. We had still two more wineries to look forward to.