- 2007 Weingut Josef Leitz Rüdesheimer Berg Kaisersteinfels Riesling Alte Reben - Germany, Rheingau (1/30/2025)
Dry German Riesling from before dry German Riesling was fashionable, this is still holding on well at age 18. Probably on the high end of Trocken, or maybe even the low end of Halbtrocken, it has a sweetness of fruit that has become burnished by time. It’s no longer fresh peach but more grilled peach. There is that whiff of ill-described petroleum distillate, but it’s not at all a dominant feature. The rocky slopes of the Rheingau appear in the finish, which is much more about stone than it is about fruit. Not particularly mouthwatering, which isn’t a surprise for the low-ish acid 2007 vintage, but it has sufficient structure. Highly enjoyable now, I would advise drinking up in the near term.
