WTN: 1998 Durbacher Plauelrain Riesling Spätlese "Achat"

1998 Durbacher Plauelrain Klingelberger Riesling Spätlese trocken "Achat", Weingut Andreas Laible
For those who don't know the meaning of "Klingelberger" on this wine, I can inform that is it simply a synonym of Riesling that is used in the southern German city Durbach in Baden. Some wine makers from here only writes Klingelberger on the label. This practice must be one of the worst marketing mistakes in the wine world - to avoid the use of the renowned name Riesling on the label. Anyway, this wine carries both the synonyms and was bought when I visited Durbach in 1999 together with some friends. A disturbing amount of the bottles my friends bought from this producer have been struck by cork taint, but I have been lucky. All my bottles have been fine, as was the one opened tonight. Probably, and somewhat sadly it is my last one.

It has a beautiful, deep golden yellow colour. The nose is equally deep with ripe fruit and an oily feeling. Just a touch of petroleum, more ripe pears and peaches and maybe a touch of alcohol.
The depth and oiliness is confirmed on the palate. The wine immediately fills the mouth with silky, ripe fruit. The acidity is there, just enough to add a certain spiciness to the warm fruit. An incredibly long and intense aftertaste that lingers in the back of the mouth for at least a minute. A great wine that has mature beautifully. Had I been served this wine blind, I am not sure if I had identified it as a Riesling and, if so, I would more probably have placed it in Alsace than in Germany. I think I need to go down to my cellar to check if there might be another bottle of this wine somewhere...

Label will be added to this post tomorrow.
Cheers,
Anders

A disturbing amount of the bottles my friends bought from this producer have been struck by cork taint, but I have been lucky. All my bottles have been fine, as was the one opened tonight. Probably, and somewhat sadly it is my last one.

That is troubling--any idea whether the producer is aware of the issues your friends have had? Laible has a very good repuation in Baden, if memory serves . . .

Here is the homepage of Andreas Laible. It is run by father and son which share the first name.

Andreas Laible jr. won the award of "best young vintner of Germany" in 2007, 1 year after his younger brother Alexander won the same contest, awarded by a jury of members of the German wine institute (Deutsches Weininstitut DWI), the european wine magazine "vinum", the "german wine magazine" and the german agriculture association (Deutsche Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft DLG).

The vineyard should be located somewhere around here (link), located on a southern slope.

Keith, No, as far as I know, none of my friends has actually contacted the winery, and for me, there has luckily been no reason. Regarding their reputation, as you can see from Richard's post, their reputation is very good, not only in Baden, but in the whole of Germany, and were so already in 1999 when I visited them. I seem to remember that they had receiver some kind of award for the best dry German Riesling of the year, probably the year before my visit. Does Richard have any further info about this?
Cheers,
Anders