Board regular Salil Benegal had reason to celebrate (accepted into PhD program) & graciously invited me to participate in eating good food and drinking (mostly) good wine.
1996 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese
This suffered from 1996 disease, as it was lactic and harshly acidic/disjointed all at the same time. Not good, despite 13 years in the glacial cellar. Sometimes you cannot overcome the issues of the vintage.
On the other hand...
2001 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese
On opening this is like trying to eat a mountain. It's a mass of minerals that crushes the palate in an avalanche of boulders. Time in the glass brings out quite a lot of fruit, and the overall structure of the wine is excellent. This is a wine for rock-heads, and in that vein nearly perfect.
2004 Chave Hermitage
20 years too soon. This never stopped changing. At first it seemed bretty, but that went away, and the wine became floral and dark fruited. Then that went away, and I swear I smelled almond extract. It's tannic, it's dense, and yet the wine has an elegance that belies its brooding, angry young man stance. It's the wine equivalent of a chld between James Dean and Catherine Deneuve.
