Prager Riesling Smaragd Weissenkirchner Ried Klaus 1997
Thanks to Rainer. Bright yellow-green colour. Darkly minerally, flintstony. Salty with minerality on the palate, spicy herbs and bitter note, grapefruit and half-dried lime, firm acidity. A bit warming with alcohol, more of a warming aftertaste than consistent finish. Bit less full, “sweet” and ripe-tasting, and much less fruity than the Hollerin from the same vintage. Inching a bit closer within 24 hours, a fraction sweeter- and riper-tasting, as well as limey. Rating: 90-
Jean-Louis Chave Saint-Joseph 2004
Thanks to Rainer. Licorice stick-like oak, cherry, smoke, elderberry, graphite, tarragon, blueberry and other forest berries, asphalt, wet grass after a warm summer rain, faint cured beef sweetness on the mid-palate, not enough to buffer a faint undercurrent of green licorice. Not especially long on the finish, but quite nicely subtle. More alcohol than aromatics, Rainer says, but impressively clean. More of a tiny wild strawberry sweetness with airing, better integrated bitterness and greenishness. A bit longer, too. Complexity and depth are quite convincing. A little bottle age should help. After 24 hours more integrated and sweeter but no better nor less greenish licorice stick-like underneath. Best on the nose, curious to see if the palate will follow suit. Even more curious if the Hermitage can truly be as much of a success in this vintage as some wine critics claim. Rating: 88+?
Greenock Creek Shiraz Barossa Valley Seven Acre 1996
From only 9-years-old vines at the time, this and the 1995 (and to a slightly lesser extent the 1994) remain my favourite vintages of this bottling. What is unique, as Rainer repeated over and over again, is the freshness for such a concentrated, thick and superripe- and sweet-tasting wine. After Eight peppermint, oak vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and mild clove to milk chocolatey blueberry yoghurt. Oily-glyceric milk chocolate. The 14.6% alcohol integrates rather well. Minty acidity. With airing a little mocha, more integrated, yet rounder, quite long. Big, but not overwhelming in a negative way. Youthful yet much more approachable than the Roennfeldt Road from the same vintage. Mild prune and red beet notes to the acidity and tannin with several hours’ airing, and greater hung meat juiciness. But completely free from the almost off-putting gaminess of some of the following vintages. Eucalyptus and other herbs. No longer as primary as it used to be, nor mature, seemingly in an in-between phase now. Hard to tell if this will taste as complete again when it enters full maturity as it did in its impressive youth, but it may be worth giving it a chance, that is, a few more years in the cellar. The Amarone-like surface sweetness was almost too much for me especially at this stage, but Rainer and Remo simply loved this. Rating: 94+/95-?
Château Monbousquet St. Emilion 1998
Thanks to Remo. Pruney-opaque garnet-ruby, garnet-red at the rim. Chestnut-like oak sweetness, a bit closed on the nose at this stage. A touch of apricot to plummy berry fruit, smoky-meaty, softly spiced dried tomato, faint Cabernet Franc leafiness. Lacks some depth, Rainer said, but is thoroughly ripe and rather opulent. A bit oaky tannin, a bit drier on the back end. With airing nicely integrated, quite smooth with the evenly ripe fruit and tannin of the vintage. The style here is debatable, a well-made yet too superficially modern wine for my taste, but the quality is not. Significantly better after 24 hours in the decanter, more opulent, sweeter and rounder, thicker with plum, mocha and soft mineral and faint, round metal notes, tasty acidity and tannin, longer and yet smoother on the finish. Remo in particular admires the sweet, finely-grained tannin, which I find noticeably oak-induced, though really fair enough. Rating: 92+?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.