WTN: Seven German Rieslings

[Jenise]

One of my local groups and I tasted through seven German rieslings last night brought by participants, of which we only really liked two. The wines were served blind and in random order arranged by the host's non-geek wife.

1) Coconut and guava on the nose, pears and oranges on the palate. Very sweet, rich, elegant, soft acids but not lacking--there was a good overall balance here. Petrol on the finish. Spatlese, possibly auslese. I guessed about 10 years old. Excellent, and it set a standard only one other wine would equal. 1999 Carl Schmitt-Wagner Auslese Longuicher Maximin Herrenberg.2) FIZZ! Simple, light bodied, sulfury, Sprite flavors, lemon finish. Please god, let this not be one of my wines (it wasn't). Bad bottle, big disappointment: 2002 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese.

3) Interesting lychee, ginger, minerals and muscatty flavors, but very sweet and giving a flabby first impression with insufficent acids to carry the sugar. 2005 Markus Molitor Auslese. Even then, such were the other offerings that this scored third place wine.

4) Subtly powerful autumnal flavors of a dry riesling with wet leaves, apples and pears. High acidity, big body, great complexity. Along with wine #1, everybody's favorite. It's one of mine: 2004 Karthauserhof Kabinett.

5) Bright yellow, extracted, big lemon-line nose, butterscotch and coconut on the finish. Among the wines so far, this is the big dumb blonde in the room, all cleavage/no class. Everyone hated it, and it was one of mine: 1997 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese.

6) Golden yellow, classic nose, austere and tired pear flavors, very dry with a bit of new shower curtain vinyl flavor in the background. Another one of mine and definitely not the interesting oddity a bottle we opened about a year ago was (I let these go too long): 99 Kunstler Kabinett.

7) Fenugreek on the nose, very dry, "unripe seeds", "bitter", sharp and unpleasant finish. This is a side of riesling I've never seen before: 2007 Knebel Von den Terrassen Trocken.

Sounds like quite an interesting mish-mash on the wines. No storage issues with the Prum? That should be a fine wine. Of course fizz and sulfur are to be expected but the Sprite element sounds a little confected/cooked?

[David M. Bueker]

Schmitt-Wagner is terribly underrated, and sadly no longer. The estate has been leased to another fine producer (Carl Loewen), but things are changing. I have a significant stash of 2001, 2004 and 2005 Schmitt-Wagners that will have to last a long time.

The Prum sounds like it's going through a typical, adolescent "I hate you, and I never want to talk to you again" phase. Unless the fizz left a sour taste I would suspect angry, not bad.

I've never warmed up to Karthauserhof. It's me, not them.

The Selbach surprises me, and not in a good way. 1997 is a very approachable vintage that is drinking well. Not sure I get the dumb blond reference to it when there were '99s (the real acid-deficient vintage of the '90s) in the same room.

Schmitt-Wagner is terribly underrated, and sadly no longer. The estate has been leased to another fine producer (Carl Loewen), but things are changing. I have a significant stash of 2001, 2004 and 2005 Schmitt-Wagners that will have to last a long time.

David, have you tried any of the Loewen wines from the Schmitt-Wagner vineyards?

(BTW - Table & Vine has some of the 99 Auslese. I may grab it on the way to your place Saturday )

[Jenise]

Sounds like quite an interesting mish-mash on the wines. No storage issues with the Prum?

No, not since purchase anyway--its owner has good storage.

[Jenise]

The Prum sounds like it's going through a typical, adolescent "I hate you, and I never want to talk to you again" phase. Unless the fizz left a sour taste I would suspect angry, not bad.

I've never warmed up to Karthauserhof. It's me, not them.

The Selbach surprises me, and not in a good way. 1997 is a very approachable vintage that is drinking well. Not sure I get the dumb blond reference to it when there were '99s (the real acid-deficient vintage of the '90s) in the same room.

"Typical adolescent...angry"? I presumed it was a secondary fermentation--the fizz was more than a light spritz, hence my capital letters.

Re the Selbach--the 'dumb blonde' comment was about the extractedness and big lemon-lime flavor without any other sign of intelligence. It reminded me, actually, of the simple lemon-lime koolaid flavor of the one Yellow Tail Pinot Gris I've been unlucky enough to have been served.