WTN: Kabinett like this; an endangered species?

Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Kabinett - 1-02 - 1998 - Reinhold Haart - Alc.8%.
I picked up several bottles of this at the estate a few years ago hoping that the then evident reductive aromas would disappear with time. I was right that the wine would eventually come right. However, all previous bottles were marred to some extent and this was the first which was completely clean.

I kick myself for not having been more patient because this has turned out to be the sort of food friendly "real" Kabinett which I really love.

Colour was still quite pale with an attractive green tint and still a few static bubbles at the bottom. The nose was superb with a delightful combination of fresh white fruit, some citrus, flowers spice and mineral with only a little hydrocarbon. The palate was brightly focussed, remarkably fresh and sprightly, quite light in body but far from anorexic with mouth-watering acidity and gentle sweetness perfectly blending perfectly and complexity adding a dimension rarely present in a young wine; 17/20.

In Bill Hooper's recent thread, I think that it was David who said that, of all the sweeter Riesling styles, it is "real" Kabinett (but perhaps not downgraded Spätlese+) which is most likely to disappear. That would be a real loss .

I would say extinct rather than endangered. I've been fortunate to have a few older Kabinetts from the cellars of friends who cellared 94s, 97s and 98s and there's an ethereal, delicate quality to those wines that modern Kabinett just does not have. For top growers for Kabinett such as Grunhaus and Willi Schaefer, the modern vintages keep producing riper and more intense wines even in vintages like 2008.

Traditional Kabinett is something quite stunning in the right hands. I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a pair of 97s from Willi Schaefer and Egon Muller, and the wines were astonishing - complex, layered, flavourful yet conveyed with a lightness and a delicate touch I haven't seen in any modern Kabinett.

[David M. Bueker]

Apologies to Bill Hooper: sweet riesling is not dead, but kabinett sure is.