WTN: Riesling, Riesling, Burgundy, Cabernet, Bordeaux

[David M. Bueker]

Dinner at a freind's house last night:

1999 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese
An intergrated, whole wine. There's still fruit, but also the more earthbound elements of Riesling coming into a slightly soft focus. Sublime.

2007 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Loibenberg
So young that its brashness is almost offputting after the grace of the Donnhoff. This can be nothing other than Austrian Riesling, with the pungency of the aromatics and almost petillant attack that actually has no CO2. On its own not a compelling wine, but an enjoyable one.

2001 Bruno Clavelier Chambolle Musigny Combe d'Orveaux
Aromatics straight from Burgundy heaven - that magical combination of fruit, earth & Burgundian pixie dust. It's still a little tight on the palate, but loosens up over the course of the evening. In reality I could just smell the wine and be happy.

1995 Pride Cabernet Sauvignon
Started out with solid, evolved cassis fruit and moved more and more towards leather over the time it was open. Very drinkable (especially with the steaks) and more of a classical style than the more modern Pride wines. I've always had good luck aging these.

2006 Quinault l'Enclos
This does not seem like a 2006. It's not young enough. The fruit is evolved and the oak is not overbearing. I remember when the 1998 Quinault was the poster-child for the emergine new style of Right Bank Bordeaux. This is still ripe, but in no way is it overbearing. There's good promise here.

Post-script: Girl Scout cookies are addicting...

Thanks for the notes. The Clavelier sounds awesome. I am a sucker for a wine that captivates me with aromatics.

J

Likewise. Few things are as offputting as serving someone a special wine and seeing them swallow straight away, without first sniffing it.

Thanks for the evocative notes!

Great lineup. That Burg and the Brucke sound really stunning (and glad to hear the 99 showed so well). Surprised to hear the Quinault was so good. I had the '98 recently and absolutely hated it; a mess of oak and clumsy, overextracted fruit.

[David M. Bueker]

Salil,

The '98 Quinault was a bizarro-world wine. Looks like they have continued to dial it back (the 2001 is darned tasty too).

And you think you're glad the Brucke showed well...I still have 6 more bottles! I am freaking elated and relieved that it showed well. That bad bottle of Kupfergrube had me panicked.

The Burgundy sounds wonderful.
I assume you would disagree with Lyle Fass who wrote that Donnhoff wines do not age well?

[David M. Bueker]

I completely disagree with Lyle & just told him so.

But it is very hip in NYC to say that Donnhoff wines do not age - almost as hip as drinking oxidized wine from the Jura.

Touche!

[David M. Bueker]

Delving into this more deeply (since I discussed much of it on-line with Lyle last evening), Lyle bases his assessment on bottles of the 2001 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Spatlese Trocken and 2000 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Auslese Goldkap. One is an old style trocken, rather than the more robust, and in my opinion more ageworthy, newer German dry wines, and the other is a botrytis wine in a vintage where there was freal problems with unclean botrytis, even from outstanding growers. Some other folks have chimed in about their experiences, but I always seem to find out that the assessment was based on wines purchased 10+ years after release through a gray market source. There was a dinner in NYC a few months ago were the older bottles did not show well at all. Of course all of them were purchased specifically for the event, so who knows what they went through during their lifetime.

I've had much better experiences with the other 2001 Donnhoff trocken (Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg) and really do not feel that 2000 is a vintage worth holding onto for anything other than curiosity sake. I actually own more 2000s than I thought I did (22 bottles), but no more than 2 bottles of anything, and a full 8 of the bottles are earmarked for two vertical tastings I have been planning. So I've really got about 14 bottles of 2000 in the cellar, or about 1/4 of the next lowest inventoried vintage of German Riesling in my cellar from during my release buying history.

almost as hip as drinking oxidized wine from the Jura.

Since you wrote oxidised instead of oxidative, I'm wondering if you consider the distinction sophistry?

[David M. Bueker]

almost as hip as drinking oxidized wine from the Jura.

Since you wrote oxidised instead of oxidative, I'm wondering if you consider the distinction sophistry?

I wasn't even thinking about it and don't care - I find the style of wine undrinkable.

I completely disagree with Lyle & just told him so.

But it is very hip in NYC to say that Donnhoff wines do not age - almost as hip as drinking oxidized wine from the Jura.

I also recall seeing a some questions about the ageability of Willi Schaefer coming from the NYC contingent (can't recall if it was from disorder or somewhere else). I can't profess to be anything more than a novice when it comes to Riesling with more than 10 years of age, but that seems to run contrary to the past history of the producer. Are there notable changes in winemaking that have occurred there which would support this concern??

[David M. Bueker]

Are there notable changes in winemaking that have occurred there which would support this concern??

Nope. Vintages are much riper (due to weather) than they used to be, and I think some folks do not like the style that the more recent vintages have given.