WTN: A brace of Rieslings (Hoffmann-Simon, Van Volxem)

[David M. Bueker]

Dinner at the local BYO with Laura and Salil.

2002 Hoffmann-Simon Kowericher Laurentiuslay Riesling Auslese
This tastes younger now than it did 4 years ago. It's a bit simple in its presentaiton, but a lot of that is the sheer baby fat that is still hanging on this wine. An hour plus of air starts to reveal petrol and a creamy edge that adds complexity, but in general it is still way too young for prime drinking. Works well with the food though.

2008 Van Volxem Riesling Volz
Smells for all the world like a top Austrian Riesling (Salil says Pichler, I think more like Schloss Gobelsburg) with loads of fruit and chalky minerals. It's precise and quite fruity (and virtually dry) on the front end and quite delicious except for an overly bitter edge on the finish. The aromatics and fruit were even better with air, but the bitterness persisted and even increased. Good with food, but a bit tough on its own owing to the bitterness.

Oh, the 1997 Maximin Grunhaus Auslese was corked.

The Hoffmann-Simon was quite tasty with the food, though for most of the evening it was largely a one-note wine - did start to show more complexity towards the end, and I agree it needs a lot more time.
The Van Volxem was quite the contrast, really enjoyed the aromatic profile in particular though there was a little bitter austerity on the back end that never went away even as the fruit emerged. Very nice, though it didn't live up to the hype this bottling gets as one of the Van Volxem flagships (I preferred the Goldberg Riesling when I had it recently - glad I at least have more bottles of that).

As for the Grunhaus... Score another one for romance, tradition and other such factors that are far important than the fact that a wine selected for a dinner with friends actually ought to be enjoyable and drinkable. Or it may have just been another one-off fluke that rarely occurs, like the 2000 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Ribeaupierre you opened a couple of weeks ago, or the 1997 de Vogue Bonnes Mares a week before that, or the 2003 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Spatlese a few days before. Next time I go buying German wine, I'll look for Christoffel or Selbach or one of the other guys who uses screwcaps or glass stoppers.