2007 Van Volxem Saar Riesling
This really hits well above its 'entry level' status (in terms of Van Volxem's dry wines) with serious depth, complexity and focus to the flavours here - this starts out with dried peach, pear and citrus fruit flavours over stony minerals, and with time floral and smoky elements emerge with the minerality becoming more and more pronounced. Really good acidity underneath, delicious.
1996 Azienda Agricola Montevertine Riserva Toscana IGT
Really elegant and gentle, lovely to follow over the course of the meal (although a bit too light to really match the spicier dishes on the table) with savoury cherries, raspberry, earth and black tea flavours lifted by bright acidity.
2001 Muller-Catoir Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese '2134'
Jay brought this knowing my liking for older Catoir wines... unfortunately this was hideously corked. Groooaaan. Tragic.
2004 Muller-Catoir Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spatlese
Starts out more like a rich, sweet Riesling than a Scheurebe with ripe peach and other white fruited flavours, but after some time the Scheurebe spice and herbal elements start to come through on the back end. Certainly tasty and a nice match with the food, although for a Catoir Scheurebe (even if not one from Hans-Gunter Schwarz, as I have liked some of the recent vintages) this was really underwhelming.
2003 AJ Adam Dhronhofberger 'Tholey' Riesling Auslese
A note on the label; 'Tholey' is written in small script (much like the single parcel designations in a few of the Muller-Catoir or Selbach-Oster bottlings), so I'm guessing it's a subset of the Dhronhofberger vineyard.
Onto what's in the glass - this is stunning. A really superb Auslese; fantastic aromatics of lilacs, smoke, savoury leesy notes and bright white fruited flavours with touches of honey and tremendous balance and depth in the mouth - rather than coming across as tropical-sweet or soft like a lot of other 03s I've had (Willi Schaefer's aside), this feels almost chewy and firm with more acidity than I expected and an incredibly long finish. A wow wine (and easily the best '03 German I've had).
