WTN: Godel, Escher, Merkelbach

[David M. Bueker]

• 2021 Alfred Merkelbach Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (3/28/2024)
  Merkelbach is one of the small handful of wineries that made me a Riesling lover. Another is Selbach-Oster, who have now taken on the production of the Merkelbach wines. Now that the transition is complete it’s interesting to taste the wines and consider how or if they have changed. Perhaps a year like 2021 is not the best for that assessment, as higher acid vintages tended to make the best Merkelbach wines even when the brothers were making them, so less potential variation to see.
  
  Anyway, long story short, this tastes like a Merkelbach wine. It’s correct in scale, rather than being super-sized. Sweetness is appropriate to its pradikat, and best of all it tastes like it comes from the Wurzgarten, with all the stones, strawberry fruit and spice that signals the site. It’s comforting to see the results of a new regime be as familiar as the old.