Tom Benns with his baby, the 2004 double magnum
The first up was a "basic" wine (as if anything so good be called basic!), Wachenheimer Riesling 2012. Tom told us that the growing season in 2012 was perfect and the grapes got three weeks more hang time than in the previous years which made them full of flavour but didn't bring the acids down either. And yes, this was pretty impressive: Aromatically it was a bit closed still. But it had such grip that the palate sensation was almost like that of tannin! It was a rich wine but the richness was countered by raciness. Nice!
Then we had a couple 2011s. First was Böhlig Riesling Trocken P.C. 2011 which was nicely open aromatically, and seemed quite ripe and spicy and veering toward a tropical style of fruit. Quite weighty on the palate but with fair acidity. Nice!
The Gaisböhl Riesling Trocken G.C. 2011 was much less expressive than the Böhlig on the nose but had better grip on the palate. Good stuff though no point opening now.
Then we went a bit back in time - it's always a fun tasting when there are more than the most recent vintages.
Gaisböhl Riesling Trocken G.C. 2008 - this was a really nice wine: aromatically open, quite muscular and powerful and spicy but with wonderful grip and freshness on the finish. Very nice!
Hohenmorgen Riesling Spätlese Trocken 1999 - aromatically wonderfully open with nice touch of petrol. Nice grip and acidity - and here I thought that 1999s were quite soft wines generally, but this was an exception to that rule. Though I must admit I have very little experience of '99s in the Pfalz so maybe that's why the structure of this one surprised me. Anyway, a lovely wine and drinking well now.
Pechstein Riesling Trocken G.C. 2004 - this was served from a double magnum which was nice! It was gorgeous. Open but very young Riesling aromatics; wonderful grip and raciness and freshness. Lovely. Hold.
Pechstein Riesling "R" 1998 - this is basically an Auslese that was vinified drier than the "traditional" style and had IIRC 11 or so g/l RS. Tom Benns had made a sweeter, "traditional" Auslese earlier but had found that hard to sell because for some reason everyone wants to buy just dry wines from Germany. (Sigh! I know that's not true for us geeks on these wine boards and I realise that wineries need to make a bit of cash, but I still miss sugar. Almost always when tasting a dry German Riesling I feel that it really would be better with less alcohol and more sugar.) Anyway, the Pfalz must be so much more south than MSR, which I'm more familiar with, so I thought that these drier wines seemed to work very well. Unlike the fresh 1999 Spätlese, this 1998 seemed quite mature with copper kettle aromas and perhaps botrytis, but if not rot, then something very like it that smells of citrus peels. So it is an attractive scent. The palate however is a bit out of tune compared to the scent since it feels rather dry though it is rich - from the scent I was expecting something sweeter and veering more towards a traditional Auslese. But it was a good wine for sure. Though I was a bit surprised that it seemed like it's time to drink it now.