WTN: German, Italian, Spanish, Spanish

[David M. Bueker]

2004 Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese
Delicious! Not showing much in the way of aged complexity yet, but open, peachy, balanced and just incredibly drinkable. The wine is a single piece, with the fruit, acid & sweetness perfectly knitted into a seamless whole. One of my top spatlese experiences in a long time.

2004 Paolo Bea Montefalco
Rounder than I would have expected, and showing such sweetness to the fruit that I was rather taken aback. Very floral & much too easy to drink. Another delicious wine.

1996 Muga Rioja Seleccion Especial
Still showing a lot of dill/pine influence from the American oak, as well as lots of rich fruit. I would never have guessed 14 years old if it was served blind. Rather agressive following the first two wines. I will not touch another for many more years.

2000 Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia Reserva
Took a good hour in the open bottle to come to its senses, but this was a perfect way to recover from the agressiveness of the Muga. It's a bit rough around the edges, but overall quite well integrated and subtle. Very fine to drink now.

Leitz Schlossberg is just awesome wine. And that Lopez also sounds lovely.

Do you actually own that Muga, or did someone else open it?

Regarding the 2004 Paolo Bea - was that the Rosso or the Sagrantino?

It was the rosso. We had it together last night.

2004 Paolo Bea Montefalco
Rounder than I would have expected, and showing such sweetness to the fruit that I was rather taken aback. Very floral & much too easy to drink. Another delicious wine.

Good to read. I had read concerns about the VA level in the Sangrantino. Sounds as if you found none in the Rosso.

It was the rosso. We had it together last night.

Thanks for clarifying.

Not to overly harp on this, but Paolo Bea made at least 2 Rosso Montefalco in 2004 – the Rosso form San Valentino and the Rosso Riserva from Piparello. Other than the fact that the fruit comes from different vineyards, they seem to have been aged similarly at 3 years before being released and they have similar grape blends.

The reason I bring this up is that since I have a few of the Piparello in my offsite storage, all purchased at the winery a couple of years ago, and am curious about this data point.

[David M. Bueker]

Yes, it was the Rosso. And no VA at all.

Salil - I own some of that '96 Muga, but this was my dad's bottle.