1997 Jos. Christoffel Jr. Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese ***:
Light golden colour. Wow, This nose is packed and packed with passion fruit. Passion fruit with crème Anglaise and caramel that’s how this wine smells to me and I love it. A very “ripe” nose but not overwhelming.
In the mouth this wine is giving a lot. Its mouth filling but also very focussed. This tastes like a crème caramel desert with passion fruits on top of it. An addicting wine which is build to last. This is not a wine from J.J. Christoffel which is imported by Terry Theise to avoid confusion.
I visited Mr Christoffel a few months ago. It was a brilliant experience, Mr Christoffel opened many older vintages for us and we talked for a long time. Unfortunately we had to leave after an hour because we had another appointed. I hope to visit him soon again as it are these experiences that make wine so special to me. He gave this wine as a present and a present it was.
2005 August Kesseler Assmannshäuser Höllenberg:
Dark red transparent colour. Some soft red fruit on the nose, cherries. Also a bit smoky and vanilla components on the nose. The smell is quite powerful and broad, and it penetrates my brain when I take a deep sniff.
This is a big wine. It is quite soft in the mouth feel and it’s not covering your mouth with a fat layer, it is however activating every taste bud in my mouth and it is not doing this in a gentle way. Some bitter notes but this is backed up by the wood and vanilla, this is not a fruit driven wine. This wine somehow reminds me also of soda water for some reason. Maybe it’s the salty aspect or something in the mouth feel. It’s like as if the made the most hedonistic Pinot Noir ever made and have then put a tiny bit of soda water in it, strange but that’s how I feel it.