WTN: More German Rieslings

Finally got to picking up some of the Mosel Wine Merchant wines earlier this spring, and was quite impressed by the two that I opened (Steinmetz and Immich-Batterieberg).

2009 Günther Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Spätlese Feinherb
Delicate, attractive, mineral, floral, and spice nose. Medium-bodied, nicely balanced, crisp, silky, and very precise; just barely sweet, very mineral, with an earthy/leesy quality. Brilliantly complex notes of grapefruit, orange sherbet, black plums, freesia, musk, and ginger. This puts a lot of Großes Gewächs to shame.

2009 St. Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett Erste Lage
From the Enomatic machine at Marty’s. Moderate in weight, lightly sweet, lightly round, with good underlying acidity. Shows tropical fruit, peach, mineral, and apple notes. Very good.

2009 Immich-Batterieberg Enkircher Batterieberg Riesling
Decanted for 4+ hours before pouring, after reading other notes that this needed a similar amount of airtime. Delicate, slaty, lightly spicy/earthy/berry nose. Full, crisp, concentrated, with intense acidity. Has a pronounced, yet finely textured, minerality throughout. Perhaps just barely off-dry. Lightly saline, with aromas/flavors of crème de cassis, plums, apples, limes, grapefruit, almonds, and white peaches. Should be one for the long haul. Excellent.

2008 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett #9
The nose is rather closed right now, with just a bit of slate coming through. A somewhat fuller and sweeter Kabinett for a 2008, though well balanced, with good underlying acidity and delicate, crisp minerality. Shows lime, golden apple, vanilla, and lightly grapey/lavender notes. Very good. This bottle was imported by the Boston Wine Company, not Terry Theise.

2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken
Medium-bodied, well-balanced, with good underlying acidity; just on the sweeter side for Halbtrocken, nicely mineral, with lime and apple notes. Just a bit riper than the 2006, maybe? Very good.

2006 Ernst Clüsserath Trittenheimer Altärchen Riesling Kabinett
Fair amount of petrol on the tropical fruit and thyme-scented nose. Full-bodied, lightly sweet, creamy, nicely balanced, with good underlying acidity. Intensely slate-driven, with lime, grapefruit, sorrel, and kiwifruit notes. Very good+.

2009 Günther Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Spätlese Feinherb
Delicate, attractive, mineral, floral, and spice nose. Medium-bodied, nicely balanced, crisp, silky, and very precise; just barely sweet, very mineral, with an earthy/leesy quality. Brilliantly complex notes of grapefruit, orange sherbet, black plums, freesia, musk, and ginger. This puts a lot of Großes Gewächs to shame.

Shocking. A dry-tasting wine with a little residual sugar to round it out, rather than a complete lack of r/s - and no sense of prestige and rarity, and it puts GGs to shame? Again, shocking.

Nice notes. If you like the Steinmetz style (or the style of wines that MWM generally brings in), make sure you try some of the 2009 Peter Lauers.

Just tried a glass of 2009 Gunther Steinmetz Riesling Spatlese last night for the first time at Guglhopf restaurant and bakery in Durham, NC. I quite liked it. The server said it was new on their wine list. Also had a glass of 2009 Anton Bauer Pinot Noir from Wagram, Austria which improved with aeration. Both were $7.00 a glass.

[David M. Bueker]

Those are very reasonable BTG prices JC, especially by current standards. I drank essentially no wine while I was on vacation in Canada because the cheapest decent BTG price I saw was $12.