WTN: Saturday night riesling

2003 Dönnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spätlese

Nice, enjoyable wine. Nose of petrol, and apples, pear/peach, As the wine evolved over the evening the primary petrol is giving way to the fruit and there is something else underlying there I can't quite put my finger on. Good acidity, the wine is sweeter than I expected but not over the top, just the right amount. Seems to hold itself together nicely with tastes of apple, pear and honey.

cheers

Jeff

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for the note Jeff. I have a whole bunch of this in the cellar & have been waiting for it to settle down a bit. Perhaps it's time to take a peek.

03 was a hot vintage, but it got some exemplary hype from the press and expectation-mongers.

I bought quite a lot of Auslesen, and some lower Prädikat. I'd really like to get some feedback on how 2003 is progressing.

[David M. Bueker]

It's waffling around Bernard. Ive had bottles of the same wine that were both exemplary and totally flabby and not worth drinking. My last bottle of the 2003 Donnhoff Kirschheck was a good drink but not exciting. The Willi Schaefer Domprobst Spatlese has been very good (once) and undrinkably limp (once) in a space of two months. I've had similar uneven performance from Prum and Van Volxem. Bottles of humble origin from Leitz (Magdalenenkreuz and Klosterlay) have been outstanding, and the Rheingrafenberg Spatlese from Hexamer is close to beerenauslese in strength & in need of much time.

So I have not much to say.

[David M. Bueker]

Postscript: for the sake of current data I opened a bottle of 2003 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese: It's lovely if a touch soft, but makes for very nice drinking now.

Thanks for the note Jeff. I have a whole bunch of this in the cellar & have been waiting for it to settle down a bit. Perhaps it's time to take a peek.

Jen and I were talking about the wine this morning comparing it to a Trimbach we had recently that Jen really liked. If I had more of the Donnhoff, I would probably let them sleep. We both agreed there seemed to be a depth to this bottle and I would expect it to get even better. While enjoyable now and it was a nice drink, I think patience will be rewarded. I just happen to have little...