WTN: Selbach in the saddle again

[David M. Bueker]

• 2001 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (9/4/2020)
  This was paired with the 2007 Schlossberg 'Schmitt' for my tasting group. I opened the bottle, poured a little bit, and immediately, and without any conscious analysis, pronounced "god wine" out loud. One sip was enough to show the very essence of Riesling grown on slate slopes. I wasn't so much tasting the wine, as experiencing it as a physical manifestation of the piece of the Earth on which it was grown. I could see a stony landscape, and my senses were registering it was if a phonograph needle was tracing among the rocks. I kept seeing and hearing the wine, rather than clinically tasting it. Discussion (not to mention the 2007 Schmitt) kicked me out of the moment, but a few moments with this wine had me back in the trance. Outside (we were social distancing on a gorgeous late summer evening, rainbow included), with a soft breeze, and the bats swirling overhead, I could have sat with this for hours watching it tell me the story of the land it had come from and the people who had brought it into being. If you have a bottle, I hope you can find a quiet place to experience what it has to bring to you.
  
• 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese "Schmitt" - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (9/4/2020)
  Paired with the 2001 Schlossberg Spätlese for my tasting group, this took our breath away. I called the 2001 "god wine" at my first sip, but this was a completely different deity. Less about revealing the fundamentals of existence, the 2007 Schmitt conveyed the infinite variation of the universe. Where the 2001 revealed itself in a trance, the 2007 blew through like a hurricane, showing its myriad faces as if caught in the swirling winds. The fruit showed even stronger than a bottle I had three months ago (ah those glorious mysteries of corks), and yet the bottle was also much more open and giving than the one from back in May. Of course the specific vineyard parcel was picked in one go for this wine - combining grapes that would normally have been selected for different pradikats - resulting in another layer of complexity, as likely kabinett, spätlese and auslese grapes were joined in a three part harmony, rather than singing solo. It was a perfect showing at a perfect time, but it would not shock me if this wine had many more perfect times to reveal itself. Drink now and until the sun goes supernova.

Great notes.

I agree with what you said about the different pradikats proving a three part harmony effect.