WTN: Pushing 20

[David M. Bueker]

2001 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spätlese trocken - Germany, Nahe (1/19/2021)
Sometimes a wine strikes at the core of being. It reveals the elemental truths of grape and place. This is one of those wines. Not a bottle intentionally left to nearly age 20, it just happened to be passed over for seven years since the last one. The inner core is sculpted stone, the patina is honey and gentle spice.

A few sips, and I am taken back in time to a dinner long ago with friends. We drank aged Alsatian and German Rieslings side by side, and found a convergence. Both the French and the German wine had been stripped to their core. They were essence of Riesling, the greatest wine in revealing the marriage of grape and place.

This wine fits in that same tasting, that same conversation. It is clearly, and indisputably Riesling. It is also clearly of a place, expressing stone, ripe fruit and a bracing acidity that can only be from Germany. At nearly twenty years of age it demonstrates that it has decades to tell its story. Sadly my last bottle, but a rewarding and revealing experience.

Great note.
I am down to a very few 2001 Germans. Those I have I mostly cling to and whisper "my precious" rather than drink.

[David M. Bueker]

Almost 20 years later I regret not a single bottle of 2001 German Riesling bought or consumed. Still have just over 200 left, but that's because I broke the bank and bought 500.

Still my all time fave German vintage. I bought a lot for me, but no where near your number. CT says I have 32 left, mostly 1s and 2s,. but I bet that's high- showing bottles like Urbans-Hof and Carl Loewen Kabs, $12 and $9 respectively, very good chance I drank those and neglected to remove.