WTN: Notes in search of a title

[David M. Bueker]

Dinner with Salil. He made a fantastic Biryani (think aromatic, spicy chicken & rice taken to a level 10 of elegance), and we opened a selection of Rieslings (with two interlopers).

2007 Johannes Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Kaisersteinfels Riesling Alte Reben
Aromatically delicious - floral and citrus, but not quite as engaging on the palate. Balanced but lacking excitement.

2007 A. J. Adam Riesling Hofberg Spatlese
Gorgeous floral nose & a finish that expands like a pile of C4 in your mouth. Only quibble is the entry which is a bit soft. Still a lovely 2007 that suffers only from being a 2007.

2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 'Rotlay'
Not even close of the wonder of the 2005 or the 2006, but still tasty enough. The softness is just something that doesn't work all that well for me. It did match with the food quite well, probably better than any other wine this night.

1998 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Rangen de Than Clos St. Urbain Pinot Gris Vendange Tardive
German wine labeling detractors should note the length of this wine's name. Salil would like to take credit for this comment, but I was thinking it long before he said it. The wine was a bit over the top in an SGN sort of way. Initially quite caremelly, it opened up and showed a lot of spice and earth, but never really seemed to hit the high notes. Too heavy, too overdone.

2001 Domaine Weinbach Altenbourg Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive
Gewurztraminer can have low acidity, but this bottle took that to a new level. Fat, unctuous and difficult to pair with the food. It did have a lot of Gewurz flavor typicity, but was exactly the wrong drink on top of a rich meal.

I'll log off now & let Salil provide counterpoint.

Jane, you ignorant slut...

The Adam was awesome. Phenomenal, exotic stuff with aromatics that had me thinking straight away 'I need to buy some more Adam wines!'

The Rotlay on the other hand was quite disappointing, particularly given my expectations. The 05 of this blew me away some time back, but this just felt soft and a bit flabby without the energy or the insane minerality I found in that wine. Darn.

I'm in agreement with David on the Weinbach and the Leitz, but found the Z-H Rangen VT a lot more interesting than he did. Very caramelized and SGN-like at first, but with more air it started to develop and show some nice smoky and peach/apple flavours amidst all the botrytis. Decent match with the food, and quite delicious both when I was sipping it on its own and with the biryani.

[David M. Bueker]

I wouldn't go so far as awesome, but it was quite good. I've only had one or two 2007s that I would consider awesome, and that is a function of the balance that is tipped to the overtly soft for nearly all wines out there. They are fantastically drinkable, but great wines? No.

Sad that 2007 can be considered so great by some pundits when it really does not posses one of the classic virtues of German Riesling: bracing acidity.

Sad that 2007 can be considered so great by some pundits...

Who are these pundits? And do they talk about the 'vintage' in general? Or just specific wines?

[David M. Bueker]

Mostly the more prolific writers on eBob. 2007 has been talked about as a can't miss vintage where you can basically throw darts. I've found it to be anything but that.

I'll be very curious to see David Schildknecht's take on the vintage. If he gives it the hyperbole treatment then I will probably cancel my subscription since it will mean that David and I are no longer aligned.

[Jenise]

The Adam was awesome. Phenomenal, exotic stuff with aromatics that had me thinking straight away 'I need to buy some more Adam wines!'

If Adam had been the first riesling I ever tried, I'd have probably become the riesling sluts (speaking of Jane, ahem) you guys are. As it is, the only two I've had merit your description.

Mostly the more prolific writers on eBob. 2007 has been talked about as a can't miss vintage where you can basically throw darts. I've found it to be anything but that.

Agree, it's anything but 'can't miss' (I find a lot of the 06s from Nahe and the Mosel/Ruwer far more interesting and impressive). From what I've had so far there is a lot of good, solid wine that's tasty and pleasant for drinking now, but very little that's really outstanding. I'll be interested to see what David Schildknecht has to say about the dry wines from the vintage though; the richness and the relatively low acidity seems to work really well for the trockens/GGs from what I've tasted.

Meanwhile, I still say that Adam was awesome. Didn't have the same energy and vibrancy on the midpalate that my previous experience with that did - but that finish and those aromatics were enough to get me hooked and convinced that I need to find some of his dry wines (and budget for his 08s).

Mostly the more prolific writers on eBob. 2007 has been talked about as a can't miss vintage where you can basically throw darts. I've found it to be anything but that..

Ok. You mean self-appointed pundits

Ok. You mean self-appointed pundits

Well, 2007's been given a lot of praise by others as well - Terry Theise was very effusive about it in his catalogue, and both the IWC and Wine Spectator have had lots of good thing to say. If it's OK to add a couple of brief quotes from other publications - the IWC writeup on the vintage did call the wines 'crisp and fresh' and compared the structure in 2007 to 2004 or 2001. I didn't taste the 01s on release, but I had a handful of 04s in the first couple of years post-release and don't see any comparison between those wines (which I find a little lighter, greener - in a good way, and racier than 07 which I still find too soft for my liking, certain producers and a few exceptional wines aside).

Ok. You mean self-appointed pundits

Well, 2007's been given a lot of praise by others as well - Terry Theise was very effusive about it in his catalogue...

I don't know what Terry is like in person, but in print he is pretty much effusive about every vintage. Which I guess is partially because he's selling the wine and partially because there is something to be effusive about every year. But I must admit that I don't always understand what he means when he tries to be effusive/positive in so many different ways and claiming not to be repetitive.

True. That said, I have found his comments on a lot of other vintages (particularly 06, 02 and 03 which I'm still quite optimistic about with the right producers after tasting what people like Diel, Selbach and Schaefer did that year) to align with my impressions after tasting - so I do give his comments a fair bit of credence (unfortunately for my wallet).

I just hope he's on the mark about the 08s... then again I've heard similar comments from a friend who visited Germany a few weeks back who also was raving about the acidity.

True. That said, I have found his comments on a lot of other vintages (particularly 06, 02 and 03 which I'm still quite optimistic about with the right producers after tasting what people like Diel, Selbach and Schaefer did that year) to align with my impressions after tasting - so I do give his comments a fair bit of credence (unfortunately for my wallet)..

Oh yes, I think he can capture the overall character of a vintage very well. And these days there has been so much great German riesling in every vintage that it is not like he has to put one over on us or anything..

The one thing though that does consistently crack me up about his catalogues is the way he has to find new ways to make each producer/wine seem distinctly delicious, and those don't always make sense to me. That said, I haven't been lacking for delicious German wine so I'm not complaining..

Interesting view points on the vintage.... I posted a thread over on eBob questioning the "classic" status of 2007 and was roundly lambasated by most (particularly those in Europe it would appear). I probably don't have enough experience to come to solid conclusions of my own yet, but I have found more of the "bracing acidity" in previous vintages and was attempting to articulate this. I've had some '06s in particular with acidity that just pierces through the palate (although they were also accompanied by huge amounts of fruit).

David and Salil, I believe your views on the vintage are in the minority but may be correct.....

By the way, Adam's 07 Kabinett is great as well if you ever see any floating around.

I actually found some of the '05 Spats sitting around at a PA wine store last year at release prices and loaded up. Let's just hope that they didn't cook them somewhere along the line.

[David M. Bueker]

2007 is classic in two ways: quality level (the wines are indeed uniformly good) and within the current state of German wine it is as close as we've gotten to normal in a while.

Compared to good vintages of the past: 2001, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1990 (I could continue) it is quite low acid & does not hit the high notes for me.

Some of the Europeans may very well be right about 2007 being a great vintage because they are much more focused on the dry wines. The top Grosses Gewachs (Erstes Gewachs for Rheingau) are truly delicious, most likely because the acidity level are a touch lower, making the lack of any significant residual sugar less of an issue that it could be in a year like 1990 or even 2001.

Interesting point about the European perspective. Makes sense.