WTN: 2000 Lang Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Spätlese

• 2000 Hans Lang Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Rheingau (8/7/2006)
  There's just lots of interesting stuff here: dried apricot, hints of petrol, flowers, mango, toasted marshmallow. The gold color suggests maturity, yet it easily lasts and changes for two days. Really interesting, and great with pretty much any type of food from curried okra and tofu to sun-dried tomato and lemon-sauced pasta. Very Good.
• 2000 Hans Lang Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Rheingau (3/11/2006)
  $9 at Dee Vine, 8.0%, AP# 31 045 005 01. On its way to mature, a pleasant nose of beeswax and other waxiness, a bit of lemon. Slight palate bitterness, but balanced with sugar and acid. Good+.
  
  UPDATE 12 Mar: Picked up significant density and depth overnight, and made a lovely match with cilantro mint lime dressing, one of the best pairings of the year. Now Very Good+.

Posted from CellarTracker

Truly an outstanding value, I'm a little puzzled at just how mature this is showing. The color is gold, more like a ten-year-old than a relative youngster of six years. Still, I'm not complaining, there is a boatload of complexity. Buy now before Dee Vine runs out!

Walt

[David M. Bueker]

The 2000 vintage is advancing rapidly towards its grave. Some wines will make it the distance, but not many. Lang makes good but unexceptional wine, and wines that are likely to be on the sooner end of that death spiral.

Glad that you found complexity, I wasn't that enamored, but the price is certainly quite cheap at Dee Vine.. I do remember that annoying pear apple thing you mentioned however..

The 2000 vintage is advancing rapidly towards its grave. Some wines will make it the distance, but not many. Lang makes good but unexceptional wine, and wines that are likely to be on the sooner end of that death spiral.

David,
Boy, I didn't realize that a poor vintage had such an impact on aging curve. The 2002s I've had (from the Mosel, no Rheingau) seem barely budged... As I said, this wine lasted overnight, so I'm not concerned that it'll die tommorrow. Still, I won't leave a case to linger. Thank you.

Glad that you found complexity, I wasn't that enamored, but the price is certainly quite cheap at Dee Vine.. I do remember that annoying pear apple thing you mentioned however..

Rahsaan,
The value quotient is why I wanted to post; it's not everyone's taste but over several bottles with all sorts of food I think I've fallen in love. Certainly it's the first wine of which I've bought two cases. Although, clearly a greater portion of the community agrees with you and David, or else there wouldn't be so much available on clearance.

Walt

P.S. I forgot to link to the label photo.

Two cases, good lord, you were enamored!

But as far as poor vintages, 02 was far from poor, no?

[David M. Bueker]

2002 was in no way poor in either the Mosel or Rheingau. It's a very good to excellent Mosel vintage at the kabinett and spatlese level, and an outstanding Rheingau vintage pretty much across the board.

I was using 2002 as an example of a good vintage; I only started drinking riesling when the 2001s were starting to come in, and drunk pretty much all of them. 2002 was the first year where my collection lasted long enough to try three years out.

I'm just surprised that a poor vintage like 2000 can result in a completely mature, about to head down the slope wine at six years past, while a good vintage can result in wines that have barely budged (or just shut down) four years past. Interesting that Lang is not a top-tier producer, that probably also has something to do with it. More research needed.

Walt