WTN: 2009 Rebholz Kastanienbusch and 95 ESJ Durell

Had some friends over for dinner and started with the 2009 Rebholz Kastanienbusch Riesling. It had been a while since I checked in on this wine. The power is still there, but now it is definitely in the background, and the calm understated elegance is at the fore. But always with plenty of fresh shimmering presence. Lovely drop of wine that is very easy to drink, although probably in a somewhat middlin' stage between the flush of youth and whatever evolution may emerge. Will probably hold on to my last bottle for a bit.

One of my guests said she never realized she liked riesling, until tasting this. Which of course made me happy. Although unfortunately replicating the exact same experience may prove difficult at our local wine mart. Still, it's a start.

Later we transitioned to 1995 ESJ Durell Syrah with dinner. You all know the deal. Still a dose of fresh juicy-ish fruit, although with a patina of calm mellowed age that made it lovely to roll around the mouth. In fact, calm enough to show well with a couple of quiches. We were all very content.

[David M. Bueker]

Geeky Riesling does set some unrealistic expectations.

The '95 Durrell is (IMO) bottle by bottle at this point. While I am sad I have no more, I am glad I drank my last not so long ago.

The '95 Durrell is (IMO) bottle by bottle at this point. While I am sad I have no more, I am glad I drank my last not so long ago.

My first taste of the '95, so I have no comparison. But I have one other bottle that I'll open at some point this summer.

[David M. Bueker]

Lucky enough to have three over the last year:

1 outstanding
1 very fine
1 OK

for whatever it may (or not) be worth: I've had the experience, over and over again, in my 45 years in the business, of tasting a wine in its early stages (including prior to bottling) and having an intuitive, almost instinctual reaction which often includes a sense of the trajectory, over time, of the wine's ability to develop, and so far, I haven't overestimated the longevity of any of those wines.

It's also true that a lot of those wines have gone through phases of not always being cooperative in showing their relative development. Sometimes they just seem to shut down.
As for the '95 Durell, I had a sense early on that it would require roughly 30 years to fully blossom. I also remember how bizarre it seemed to me that I should be cheeky enough to make such a prediction.

As someone once said: "Time will tell, who has fell, and who's been left behind..."