WTN: Great Riesling, frustrating Riesling

2007 Wagner-Stempel Siefersheimer Höllberg Riesling Spätlese (Rheinhessen)
This is one of those bargain dessert wines marked as Spätlese - the Theise catalog says 110 Oechsle, which is hitting Beerenauslese levels. Nice once you come to terms with the sweetness and size of this thing (and realize it's something to either go with with fairly spicy food, or just drink in lieu of dessert), but as a table wine it's totally unserviceable. That said it's still quite tasty and fun with wild aromatics combining malty, smoky and floral notes over ripe yellow fruits and apples, incredibly dense and rich in the mouth with layers of sweet white fruits, peaches and apple over chalky mineral notes, and decent acidity that still makes it quite drinkable despite the immense weight and sweetness here. Not too bad a buy on closeout at $23, but certainly not what I was expecting (particularly from a producer whose reputation seems to lie with dry wines). While these are nice values (considering that they're basically giant Auslese+ wines at great prices), it does get frustrating trying to sort out proper, food-friendly Spätlese from the giant dessert wines not marked as such.

2002 A.J. Adam Dhronhofberger Tholey Riesling (Mosel)
In a really great place right now. Beautiful mature aromatics with the apple/peachy fruit having a smoky, burnished quality to it and gentle herbal, honeyed and minerally accents, power and depth in the mouth with a sense of precision throughout and really good length. Fantastic wine and I'm glad I have more of this.

2007...Spätlese...Rheinhessen

I would have thought those three items alone would suggest that this is not a crisp racy oyster wine?

I wasn't looking for crisp and oyster-friendly (if that ever happens, I have Alzinger Steinertal and Trimbach CFE at hand ), but there are plenty of other producers in the Rheinhessen like Geil, Gunderloch, Keller, Wittmann, Gysler among those I drink occasionally, who make Spatlese that's rich but still perfectly serviceable as a food wine. My issue with the Wagner-Stempel was that it was too rich and sweet to work as a food wine (really dominated everything at the table) - though a glass after dinner in lieu of dessert was absolutely lovely. Liked it a lot more when it wasn't overwhelming some perfectly good food with its sweetness.

Though it does frustrate me when producers seem to focus on extreme ends of the sweetness scale with Riesling, between only really dry wines and massively sweet wines and barely anything in between.

I wasn't looking for crisp and oyster-friendly...Geil, Gunderloch, Keller, Wittmann, Gysler among those I drink occasionally, who make Spatlese that's rich but still perfectly serviceable as a food wine. My issue with the Wagner-Stempel was that it was too rich and sweet...

Fair enough. Lots of different styles and lots of different food matches. The trick is finding the right one and I agree the (excessive) sugar doesn't always make it easy.

I find a little bit of sugar helps a lot in terms of creating different food pairings. Something like a halbtrocken, a 'harmoniously dry' Van Volxem with a touch of residual sugar or an elegantly sweet Kabinett or Spatlese (like what Selbach-Oster, Schaefer or Donnhoff produce so regularly) that isn't a sugar bomb/declassified Auslese or BA can work with so many types of dishes and flavours. I have a harder time finding great - sometimes even successful - matches with wines on the extremes - either really dry trockens or massively sweet wines like the Wagner-Stempel.