WTN: 2007 Van Volxem Estate Riesling (Saar, Germany)

Opened and decanted for an hour before dinner. Very pale yellow-green colour. Shows an intense mineral-driven nose with stony aromas over lemon, grapefruit and some faint peachy and floral notes. Bone dry in the mouth with vibrant acidity and more citrus fruit flavours layered among mineral and herbal flavours that develop with time. Finishes clean with medium length. A bit too dry to enjoy on its own, but this went very well with a lightly spiced Thai meal.

Opened and decanted for an hour before dinner. Very pale yellow-green colour. Shows an intense mineral-driven nose with stony aromas over lemon, grapefruit and some faint peachy and floral notes. Bone dry in the mouth with vibrant acidity and more citrus fruit flavours layered among mineral and herbal flavours that develop with time. Finishes clean with medium length. A bit too dry to enjoy on its own, but this went very well with a lightly spiced Thai meal.

This is the QbA, Salil? If so, I think that I just got some at Crush.

Mark Lipton

A bit too dry to enjoy on its own..

Technically, is the problem really that the wine is too dry? Or perhaps just not complex enough and without enough going on.

I mean dry wines can be enjoyed on their own!

Or did you mean to imply that even this basic wine would have been more fun with a dollop of residual sugar. Perhaps. But it still would have been simple, if you want to be strict about judgements.

Yes Mark, that is the QbA.

Rahsaan - not a knock on the wine. It was very enjoyable with food and even had the richness to stand up to a little spice - but I find most dry wines [edited to add: German trockens, specifically] a bit too tart/acidic to drink on their own (with very few exceptions like G-Max or the 07 Hermannshohle GG). I had the 07 Van Volxem Goldberg Riesling recently which seemed a little less dry than this (seemed to have a bit more residual sugar and a bit more richness/extract) and found it much more enjoyable on its own.

I find most dry wines a bit too tart/acidic to drink on their own (with very few exceptions like G-Max or the 07 Hermannshohle GG)..

Are you talking about most dry German riesling or most dry white wine in general?

If the latter, all I can say is Wow!

Er, dry German Rieslings. Whoops.

Although I still generally prefer drinking wines with food than without.

Salil, do you always decant very young wines or did you do it here for a specific reason?

Er, dry German Rieslings. Whoops..

Ok, I can sort of see that. Although the further south you go there are some pretty full-bodied versions that do pretty well on their own for my palate. But then again I love acidic structure.

Salil, do you always decant very young wines or did you do it here for a specific reason?

I did it here because the wine seemed very tightly wound and ungiving initially and I felt it'd benefit with air (and I had a similar experience with the 07 Goldberg last month, which opened out really nicely after decanting a couple of hours). Although I generally tend to give young Rieslings a fair bit of air - either in the glass or in the decanter.