2005 Braun Oppenheimer Rheinhessen Weisser Burgunder Kabinett Trocken (Germany) 13% – appears straw gold, tiny clingers, smell melon, blueberry, some smell of pond, with air, quite perfumed, taste soothing melon, cantaloupe, some blueberry in mid-palate, finish is a bit raw with pineapple rind, dry, almost tart finish, mineral hanging around, long finish, this wine was a moving target and I enjoyed it for that aspect, some gentle touches, but a lot of rawness and aggressiveness on the tongue, a gritty one
2005 Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim Nierstein Rheinhessen Riesling QbA (Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete) (Germany) 12.5% – smell honey, lime, peach, mouthfeel incredibly smooth, thick honey texture, taste good acidity, quite light hints of peach or apricot, sharpness, midway hit with the heaviness of the wine with faint uninteresting flavors, but finish comes back nicely with dollop of mineral/slate and great dryness, overall I wished the wine were more like its finish—with a statement to make, but the wine overall seemed kind of boring in its flavor which was reinforced by an overly dense mouthfeel, made the wine drinkable but eminently forgettable, with or without food. Also wondered what's going on with the reapplied back label that appears to block out the BIO marking, which I assume refers to organically-grown grapes. I wonder why they originally had labels with the BIO mark and then went and reprinted them without it. Could be a Jenny stamp thing here waiting to happen!
2005 Kreuzberg Neuenahrer Schieferlay Ahr Spätburgunder (Germany) 13% – appears very light rose color, super transparent, smell dense raspberry, bit of dark cellar, sweet chemical metal polish (but this seems to burn off), with air, quite fragrant, spices, hay, touch of alcohol, taste full juicy fruit, particularly berries, at first the finish burns with an excess of spice that hijacks the wine, after about 2 hours, however, this settles down, and the wine settles down into darker heavier fruits (perhaps even some pomegranate in there), finish never really comes together for me, the original spice attack recedes into weedy and tart finish, overall the distinct interesting fruit flavors that lurk around in the wine made it interesting, and once things calmed down a more integrated one (especially by the second day), but ends up as more of an interesting display of those flavors—the whole is not greater than the sum of those parts
2005 Barton & Guestier Château Barrail Laussac Bordeaux (France) 13.5% – appears dark crimson brown-purple, smell library books, aura of fruit, soft and quite nice, mouthfeel thick and dense, not quite silky, good middle ground, taste dense concentrated fruit, recessed spice which was nice accent, dry dry fruit lurking in there, intense cherry, coffee/cocoa mix feel to denseness on tongue, this wine worked quite well with a pot roast—indeed overall the wine reminded me much more of the texture of meat, the fruit flavors were there but the more interesting elements were just the simple understatement lurking underneath, kind of layered and stringy and interconnected without being all that complex, not a wine that shines, but does a great job in a supporting role in the appropriate meal, can def hold a bit of weight
Edited to correct spelling.