WTN: Riesling lives

Last night I opened my first bottle of 2018 Hofgut Falkenstein Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese feinherb #3. Such a good wine. Somehow these Falkenstein wines exceed my expectations (almost) every single time. I should probably become a smarter person and start revising my expectations upwards. I often think of them as basic wines (perhaps influenced by price), but the sexyfun factor is high. Yes a bit riper and thicker due to the vintage, but still with a racy fresh Saar tint. Such a good match with soft-shelled crab, sauteed maitake and spinach, and barley. The wine disappeared before my eyes.

And probably offered more sexyfun than the grander 2012 Hirtzberger Hochrain Riesling Smaragd that I drank recently. It was my last bottle and not showing the lively glories of 1 or 2 years ago. But far from a bad way to spend a meal.

[David M. Bueker]

You comment on the Falkenstein and expectations has me recalling an interesting dinner conversation with some of the old Boston crowd. We were remarking on how well all the white wines had showed versus significant disappointment in the reds. I think it was Charles Weiss who said that we never have as high expectations for the whites, so we are more often favorably surprised by their performance. With the reds we were looking for transformative experiences, which are very hard to come by, even with top flight producers.

Fine point. I don't think I have higher/lower expectations for red vs. white wine in general, but the basic point is the same.

Of course another angle is that when we have high expectations we may trick ourselves into finding the complexity or high quality of a wine. Human psychology is complicated!