I love riesling, but am not always the best judge-critic of them. To me, they nearly all taste good if they have enough concentration and purity of fruit and decent acidity. But once in while a memorable bottle comes around. This, to me, was one of those types of bottles.
Peter Jakob Kühn, Oestrich Lenchen, Riesling Spätlese, 2004
A medium-deep gold already. A strange bottle, bottled with a stainless steel bottle cap (yes, the kind you need a bottle opened for). Also, the first riesling wine I have ever had to decant, since there were some greyish-white globules on the bottom that looked like bacteria through a microscope that I didn't want to be drinking. So I decant...
Pear and mild citrus on the nose, it really becomes more active in the mouth: dried orange peel, tropical fruited (but not overripe!) starfruit, passionfruit, papaya with a dried note on the vauguely smoky finish. This is beautiful. 11% alcohol gives this more of a body with glycerin feel than is normal for a spatlese. After a time, some verbena and lavender come through. A true German vino da meditazione, to mix regions here. A-/A