As the first sunrays appear, a quick trip to the Rheingau is a must. At Rüdesheim, the whole kitschy tourist-trapping scene –which I dislike, melts with some of Rheingau’s top winemaking scene – which I kind of like :). One of the most acclaimed estates here in Rheingau even runs a hotel with a restaurant and winebar; of course a nice occasion to try Breuers 2007 vintage. And the Rüdesheimer Estate Riesling is as nice as one would expect it to be in such a perfect year. Elegant, not too overwhelming nose, Clear minerality and zingy acidity on the palate but well counterbalanced with fruit notes. Not too much fruit of course- Breuer is one of the role models of the dry Riesling renaissance in Germany. And this wine could somehow be the personification of a typical dry Rheingau Riesling for everyday.

Some of the fine vines of Hochheim

As every year, Künstler presented his newest vintage at the Estate in Hochheim. The sky was overcast, but it was warm and the thrill of the 2007 vintage allured guests on its own. Here are some of the wines I tried:

The 2007 Finnesse, is a light fruity Riesling with somehow atypical earthy notes reminding Sauvignon Blanc, interesting.

The 2007 Herrnberg Qba was one of our favorites, nice balance, with fruit and herbs, vibrant and harmonious at the same time.

The Hölle Kabinett trocken is a beautiful wine, with a more emphasized acidity, but what an elegant acidity, it is quite austere now with herbs and less fruit, and powerful, but should be improving massively with time.

The Stielweg Alte Reben trocken appeared also vibrant and powerful, very appealing.

Hochheimer Kirchenstück trocken Goldkapsel is actually a downgraded First Growth since the harvest yielded 52 Hl surpassing the allowed yield for first growths by 2 Hl. This is of course a very nice wine with fruit and power, but will need its time.

From the older vintages that were there to taste, the 2005 Hochheimer Hölle trocken Goldkapsel and the 2004 Hölle Riesling Auslese trocken were 2 splendid wines.

Still one of my favorites. The nose has nice exotic fruit with a slight caramel touch, with a little time and air it intensifies enormously transporting ripe passion-fruit and mangoes to your olfactory receptors. On the palate you have this typical Künstler symbiosis bringing fruit and slenderness together with loads of minerality as a link. The fruit is mouth-filling, the minerality transcendental, yet the wine doesn’t appear heavy or stiff. The minerality is still there in the aftertaste, together with a luscious caramel note which lasts incredibly long. I would say this wine is on its peak; it’s just so nice to drink right now and really has its one personality. Great experience again – 94

Another Riesling I smuggled to KL to fight the Malaysian jungle heat. This one, a 2005 Schloss Johannisberg Spätlese (Grünlack), was a bit too sweet for that purpose, but tasted quite well with sushi. When the bottle was finished, we switched to cold Tiger beer to quench our thirst. Happy moments.

This is something I really looked forward to for my trip to KL. Enjoy a fancy bottle of refreshing Riesling with the cheap and delicious Asian street food. So I smuggled a bottle of 2006 Kiedricher Gräfenberg GG by Robert Weil to Malaysia, chilled it in the hotel fridge and brought it, together with wine glasses to a street food stall, the famous beef noodle stall in the Bukit Bintang area. Both the food and the wine were delicious.

It is not every day that I open a nearly 50 year old bottle of wine. In these last weeks however it is already the second 1959 Riesling I pull the cork out. I think that after this surprisingly good mystery bottle (with ripped off label) I just got tempted to see if all 59’s are that damn good. And it even got better!

Of course I didn’t buy this bottle 50 years ago, but rather these past months on Ebay. It arrived at my home in very good shape. At one point in its long life the bottle had been recorked and then sealed with wax. It might also have been refilled at this occasion, but this I cannot verify. The filling level however was still excellent.

We poured the wine after some other top notch Rieslings from Leitz and Künstler and feared it wouldn’t stand the comparison. But our worries were totally misplaced. This wine was a whole masterpiece on its own.

It started with the colour, an elegant gold which was bright and not too dark. Lighter than 1999 Stielweg Alte Reben from Künstler we had before. Then the nose: it only had the slightest sign of age, maybe a tiny wax-like note which indicated that it was a mature wine. But nothing could have make you guessed it was 50 years old, especially with a little peach fruit which was still there. One of our friends guessed 1995. Well, he had the numbers right already…

On the palate the wine appeared first fresh and minty with a nice texture, somewhat oily and rich. It had the sweetness of a dry Spätlese with a fruity mouth with hints of peach and orange. What was impressive was that the wine evolved every minute in the glass. It soon began to show its extract through a dynamic texture, revealing a certain power which pushed on the palate, enveloping it with a delicious mix of herbs and minerality. This was followed by a glorious length. It felt as if there was a certain energy in the wine which waited 50 years to finally come out. Like a Geanie in the bottle.

This was a fantastic, timeless masterpiece, and for now the best aged Riesling I had. We felt lucky that we had such a wine for my Dads birthday. And such as the wine, my ratings evolved from 95 to 96 and 97, but I feel that I might start to exaggerate, so I’m gonna stick with a 95+ rating.

Several times I had the opportunity to take a sip of Robert Weil’s First Growth (Erstes Gewächs) Riesling from the Gräfenberg in Kiedrich which is one of Germany’s best Riesling-Terroirs. It is a dry Auslese wine which has a unique style and character. It has a rather filigrane body with a nice minerality and determined but not overwhelming fruit and although it feels light and filigrane it has a certain power which at the right moment pokes your palate to underline its grace.

Now if you don’t want to spend 30 Euros on a bottle or if you’d like to have an everyday version of this First Growth wine there is an option: the Gräfenberg Kabinett. It has about the same style but is just more rough and basic, as if the First Growth was a masterpiece painting and the Kabinett its sketch.

Still there are some small differences to its big brother. This Mini-Gräfenberg is a little more emphasized on the dryness, with a little less fruit and slightly more acidity (which most Kabinetts are of course). But the core of a good Rheingau Riesling is there: the “Spiel”. Oh, and “Spiel” - literally translated- means game and is the German wine-term describing the dynamic interaction between several taste components in a wine, but mostly when talking about Riesling it describes the interaction between minerality, acidity and fruit.

So this Kabinett has everything the First growth has, but to a lesser extent. It has a delicate peach nose (even the empty glass has a very intense scent), feels fresh and crisp on the palate and has a dynamic minerality-push which already initiates a satisfying finish. I think I would rank it somewhere between 87 and 89 points, as for a good food match, I believe it would make a good companion for Asian dishes with a little spice (well if they’re too hot I’d rather drink beer

Again a nice Christmas Wine. This old Riesling from Hessische Staatsweingüter (State-owned wineries of Rheingau) showed of course strong signs of maturity but did not at all seem old. Golden colour, aromatic nose, tasty body with bitter orange notes and a certain freshness, slight acidity. Perfect with cheese!

This was a Special day. After having tasted some of Robert Weil’s top wines at the 2006 vintage presentation, we had the opportunity to try 2 of Josef Leitz’ dry Rieslings. Whereas Weil’s wines are well known since ages- they delivered many wines to royal families in the 19th century -Josef Leitz has only build up his reputation in the last years and did so with a totally different style of dry wines. Weil’s Gräfenberg Rieslings are generally more slim and filigrane with a subtle minerality game (The 2006 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Erstes Gewächs is much more closed than the 2005 and could be more of a long runner by the way), whereas the wines of Joseph Leitz from Rüdesheim are presenting themselves as powerful Riesling bombs!
We started with a bottle 2005 Berg Schlossberg Spätlese. It was fruity and dense, nearly creamy on the palate with little acidity and at the same time had a dense and powerful extract stroking your palate. And this wasn’t due to alcohol since it only has 12,5 % - Unbelievable, how did they do that? This wine was just exploding in your mouth and seemed to transport flavors and aromas to every inch of your body. And still, it appeared balanced, had clear minerality and everything you would expect from a great Riesling, including a terrific length. Could this be topped?
As a second bottle we tasted the 2006 Berg Rottland Alte Reben Spätlese. This wine representend a climax in terms of power and is a true giant. It seemed so alive, like a tiny hurricane on your palate and it had a length which echoed on forever. Ok, this one certainly had a little more alcohol than its sibling (I think it was 14 degrees), but again it was balanced and didn’t appear overdone.
So these were 2 great discoveries. I already had another Riesling in the same style before which was from Wegeler, but I believe it is a style we can expect to appear more and more and not only in the Rheingau - Keller in Rheinhessen does it for example but also F.X. Pichler and some other Austrian Estates. I have nothing against such a development since it makes this noble grape variety much more versatile and I have nothing against diversity, and concerning food matches for example, such a Riesling could even go with red meats, although I’d prefer it with poultry or rabbit in a very aromatic sauce.
Now I’m actually looking forward to visiting the estate and try some more of Josef Leitz’ wines. I’d recommend any Riesling drinker to once experience this style of wine and especially these 2 bottles we had.

With the sunny weather here in Germany (warmer than south of France and Spain actually, which is incredible), we were seduced several times to open a bottle. It was a nice occasion to re-taste some Rheingau Rieslings from Künstler and check on their current condition.



2001 Künstler Stielweg Riesling Spätlese trocken

The last time we had this one was in September 2005, I made a short note here (in German). It still had a nice fruity nose with a sweet touch of honey and apricot. On the palate then it radically changed during this year and a half. It appears much drier and marks a real contrast to the nose, iodic and metallic, with a steady acidity. This one needs a food match to reveal its full potential. We matched it with a starter, eggplant rolls stuffed with feta-creme, and – very important – a balsamic vinegar dressing on top. The acidity in the food balances the acidity in the wine and makes the wine appear more round and elegant. Now this was a perfect match. As for the evolution of the wine, my guess is that it has now reached its optimum maturity. I will keep a spare bottle for next year, trying to track its further development.
89

1999 Künstler Stielweg Riesling Alte Reben halbtrocken

We had this bottle and the next one after coming home from an Italian restaurant where we already had 2 satisfying wines (Italian Sauvignon Blanc and Arneis on a sunny terrasse). We then needed some bottle as a perfect finish fort he evening. Luckily I put this Stielweg „old vines“ from 1999 in the fridge a day earlier. It is a „halbtrocken“ wine, which means „semi-dry“ but I remembered it not to be overwhelmingly sweet. The last time I had this one was also roughly 2 years ago (here). It was back then a really nice wine but it completely changed during that period of time. The flintstone nose I noted down disappeared and became a very dense and mature fruit nose with exotic touch; some would say it had an age note, but an elegant one which you would look for (leichte Edelfirne)
On the palate then some really fantastic stuff: a slightly sweet liquid with extreme feel of clarity and purity with a nice mineral note. As an analogy, I thought of giant clear and pure icebergs when I tasted it. And above all it had an extremly long finish where minerality and mature fruit notes reverberated forever. I wonder for how many years this one will be on the top? My guess is at least another 2 to 5, but I can well imagine this bottle being a nice experience in 10-20 years.
94

2005 Künstler Reichestal Riesling Kabinett trocken

This bottle came right after the `99 Stielweg. It is from the same estate and I thought it could top the last one. I was wrong. Although it was quite a nice wine with exotic fruit nose, it just didn’t have the depth and structure in the mouth to make it up to the Stielweg. With only 7,5% of alcohol it was evident it didn’t have the necessary backbone and with that much sweetness it appeared somehow unbalanced. But on the other hand it is still very young and might developp some more complexity. Also it was somehow unfair and silly to open this one after a matured giant. I’d give it an 84 and the guarantee of another chance to prove itself in one or 2 years.