WTN: Kitchen Kabinett

[David M. Bueker]

• 2014 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (4/22/2021)
  Seven years post vintage is when I like to start really checking in on Kabinetts, or in this case finishing them off. This is still a young wine, but it’s been open and refreshing from the get go, and never shut down. Lemon zest and apple skin are carried on a wave of ice cold salt water, with an electric eel along for the ride. There’s a bit of a phenolic bitterness, but it adds to the overall brightness of the wine.

Fantastic - and apt - description:

Lemon zest and apple skin are carried on a wave of ice cold salt water, with an electric eel along for the ride.

[David M. Bueker]

Thank you.

FWIW, this bottle has held up really well over several days in the fridge. I am not normally a big fan of that, as I normally find the wines lose their edge/excitement factor, but this one is going very well. I had not considered 2014 as a vintage for even moderate aging, but the wine always has the last word.

Dave, I am impressed by your descriptive powers. If the price is reasonable, which I expect, I plan to order a bottle. These days I expect my wife and I would prefer Kabinetts to Spatleses and Ausleses. Years ago aboard the Deutschland going from Rotterdam to Basel we were surprised by how much we grew to like the fairly dry German wines served with the food on our Rhine cruise. Best, Richard L

[David M. Bueker]

Richard - not sure you will be able to find the 2014, but Selbach-Oster is extremely reliable, so any recent vintage will be excellent. I buy this particular wine most years.

Thanks, Dave. I should have added that I looked up a later vintage, i think 2018, on Wine Searcher. Richard L

[Jenise]

Richard--subject change, just a light question. But most of your posts begin with a bracket, a '['. Any idea why?

To Jenise: If I notice the bracket I get rid of it, but sometimes I do not notice it (I get rid of it sometimes if I look at the post again and happen to see it). Sorry about it, but i am so old i find computers with their peculiar changing of programs etc., far from user-friendly. l like to be able to do things in a certain way and get the same helpful result, but sadly things do not seem to work that way. "Program
change" is far from enjoyable for most elderly people. The young adapt much better. If I get anywhere it is usually just from persistence. Of course I sometimes have to ask an expert. It is not something with which I like to deal. Best wishes, Richard L

Dave: about the only year i can find in any quantity in CA of your wine is 2019. it was apparently a good year. but opinions vary on when it would be ready to drink.. I would very much like your opinion on that. Richard L

[Jenise]

Richard, it's not in anyone's way--don't worry about it. I was just curious as I've never seen that before.

[David M. Bueker]

Dave: about the only year i can find in any quantity in CA of your wine is 2019. it was apparently a good year. but opinions vary on when it would be ready to drink.. I would very much like your opinion on that. Richard L

The 2019 should be delicious now.

Great description, Dave. I love it when I find a wine that's a pleasure at first release and continues to give pleasure for years afterward. Adam Albert's 1989 Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Spaetlese was a wine like that. Excellent on release and just as good 12 years later on the sad occasion when I opened the last bottle. 1985 Lynch-Bages is another such wine. The take on it when it was first released was "very pleasant now but not built to last--drink it up." Fifteen years later that was still the take on it. And as far as I know it never went through a closed-in or grumpy stage.

-Paul W.

Thanks for notes. I really love S-O, but don't think I have this.