Mark S wrote: I have a little slew of 2004 rieslings and wonder where they might be along in their development. No Shafer-Frolich for that year, but Donnhoff, Kuhn, Weil, Willi Schaefer...
are these drinking well now? (I am interested because of your closed-down & petrol note on this one). 2002's I've had recently have been uterly delicious right now.
Not David here, so I hope you'll forgive my interruption - but most of those seem to be in a fairly closed-down phase right now. I've had the 04 Weil Grafenberg Spatlese twice in the last year - in January it was drinking beautifully, an absolute beauty with tons of power, balance and complexity - when I opened another bottle around June/July - both from the same lot/cellar - it seemed to be closing down. The raw fruit, power and intensity was there, but it seemed to have a lot more in reserve and didn't show the precision and range of flavours that my previous bottle had. Had a similar experience with the 04 Donnhoff Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg recently - last year it was a mindblowing wine (one of the finest Spats I've ever tried) but needed a ton of air to show at its best - a second bottle a few months later seemed very tight/closed with a fraction of the fruit/complexity I'd found in the first.
The few other 04 Spatlese from Vollenweider and Donnhoff (Kirschheck) that I've tasted in the last few month have also seemed rather tightly wound and holding a lot back in reserve. I think the only 04 I've had recently which wasn't that way was the Donnhoff Norheimer Dellchen, which showed beautifully with a quick decant (although that had come from a very cold cellar). IMO, it's worth keeping hands off those - the 02s, 03s, some 05s, 06s and 07s are all tasting gorgeous at the moment, so I'm drinking those for now until the 04s start to open back up.
