Just a Wegeler guy

Wegeler 1999 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 02 001 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Thai riesling (lemongrass, Makrut lime leaf, palm sugar), with the texture but not the taste of coconut cream. Very intense, very sweet, but as certain omissions in the list of Thai referents might suggest, somewhat acid-deficient. It’s not flabby, but there’s no respite for its thickness nor its sugar. Is it ready? Well, it’s not falling apart, but I’m dubious that more time is going to lead to anything measurably better. (11/11)

Canis gold

Vollenweider 2006 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Spätlese 02 07 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – So is this actually a beerenauslese? (NB: it’s not, but there’s no question it’s an auslese in other guise). Massively, powerfully, brain-poundingly sweet…and yet, with the sharp, crystalline acidity that few wines other than German riesling manage to achieve at this level of sucrosity. I’d say the flavors run towards Terminator apple and Full Metal Jacket Meyer lemon, but really it’s just very, very sweet at the moment. One for the cellar. (9/11)

Gaden of Erden

JJ Christoffel 2001 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese 006 02 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Pearly. Maybe I should use that, rather than my usual descriptor creamy, for the state of maturing riesling, because it more accurately reflects the way in which the various sorts of minerality are retained. This is still pretty sprightly, with a clarity that’s akin to drinking the glass itself rather than what’s in it, but there’s a little here for lovers of riesling past its callow youth. Just a little, though. (9/11)

Don't bopp so gently

Perll 2004 Bopparder Hamm Fässerlay Riesling Spätlese 4 05 (Mittelrhein) – Light cream of white nectarine with an impression of wind. Short. It’s nice enough, but awfully wispy. (7/11)

Vending baroque

Selbach-Oster 2001 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 022 02 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Dust, salt, red cherry, makrut lime flesh. Concentrated and, while not delicious at the moment, certainly dancing around that adjective. (5/11)

Safari behind

Kruger-Rumpf 2009 Binger Scharlachberg Riesling Spätlese 021 10 (Rheinhessen) – Pomelo. Completely dominated by pomelo. Hints of grapefruit, with a spicy sweetness, but having recently devoured pomelo by the wheelbarrow in Southeast Asia, the flavor is fresh on my palate. Fun. (5/11)

Leitz out

Leitz 2002 Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese Trocken (Rheingau) – The ever-so-slight touch of cream is a little surprising in this wine, given that it’s so young, but it works wonders in terms of textural cohesion. Everything else is still primary…gravel and dried white flowers, weight and presence, steel under lidded eyes. Surprisingly approachable, and yet nowhere near what it will become. (9/10)

Heyden Caulfield

Dr. Heyden 2009 Riesling Oppenheimer Sackträger Riesling Spätlese 12 10 (Rheinhessen) – Nuclear. (Sorry, too easy.) The wine’s also too easy, bringing basic spätlese without much riesling. (12/10)

Expensive balls

Karl Joh. Molitor 2008 Hattenheimer Riesling Spätlese 0013 09 (Rheingau) – Heavy, sticky (this feels far sweeter than it probably is), ponderous, dull. Really uninteresting. (10/10)

Wally

Karp-Schreiber 2008 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 10 09 (Mosel) – Sprightly dandelion wine with dusty minerals. Lemongrass, hibiscus, and bergamot. Simple, but of decent length. Whatever this wine is going to do, it’s not doing it yet. (10/10)

Yeast

St. Urbans-Hof 2007 Leiwener Laurentiuslay Riesling Spätlese 028 08 (Mosel) – SULFUR! SULFUR!! SULFUR!!! This wine, Keith Richards-like, is apparently designed to live forever. Is there anything else? Yes: buried deep, deep within are tropical fruit (pineapple-dominated) and a very rough, vaguely quartz-like finish. But this much sulfur could make your average JJ Prüm point and laugh. (5/10)

Do you Graach?

JJ Prüm 1999 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese 17 00 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Lightly sulfured. For Prüm. Very light petroleum aromas in the process of being supplanted (or is it the other way around? maybe) with Pink Lady apples and…are those peaches? Peach nectar, more like. Still kinda clunky at this stage. Ah, the wait for Prüm… (5/10)

Down in a höhle

Dönnhoff 2001 Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese 008 02 (Nahe) – A misty memory of dust. Peachy-creamy and supple. Is it “better” than it was in its youth? I don’t know if I accept the utility of that word here. I liked it young. I like it differently now. (5/10)

The Haardter they fall

Müller-Catoir 2008 Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Spätlese 20 09 (Pfalz) – Huge, huge, huge. Banana cream and raspberry popsicle. Oddly, I mean both in a positive way. Powerful, and in fact a little overwhelming. (3/10)

Fischer king

Dr. Fischer 2007 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Spätlese 3 08 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Shy for the first twelve hours or so, then blossoming into timidity and overt restraint. Sounds exciting, I know. A lot of dust eventually leads to a petrol-tinged lemongrass creaminess and canned peaches (more about the can than the fruit), but this just isn’t very interesting. (3/10)

Worm d'or

Vollenweider 2008 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Spätlese “Goldkapsel” 05 09 (Mosel) – Very ripe. Very, very ripe. Very, very, very…oh, hell, you know where I’m going with this. But it is…ripe, I mean…though there’s a flood of acidity to match it, and it actually manages a fierce, fisticuffs-in-lava sort of balance. Apples? Sure, why not? Mineral-grayed coarse sea salt as well. Fascinating. And very young. Very, very young. Very, very, very… (1/10)

Do you Graach?

von Kesselstatt 2007 Graach Josephshöfer Riesling Spätlese 15 08 (Mosel) – I miss the days when a spätlese was a medium-weight wine. This is a bruiser, and though along with its full metal jacketed weight comes vibrant structure that carries that weight, it’s a very muscular wine. Green apple granite and dripping molten iron sundae topping. Age will definitely not hurt this wine. (1/10)

Dhron & quartered

AJ Adam 2008 Dhron Hofberg Riesling Spätlese 04 09 (Mosel) – Light salt, white pepper, and very fruity pineapple, elevated with power and vibrancy. Very self-confident. (12/09)

Finkenauer, or two if you need them

Finkenauer 2005 Kreuznacher Osterhölt Riesling Spätlese Semi-Dry 18 06 (Nahe) – Straining and stretching, seemingly forcing itself into a misty, photo-negative role it’s not quite built for. Its minerality is worn on the exterior, the apple skin and gale-force winds that comprise the wine’s “fruit” are in the interior. This is a reversal of riesling’s usual form, and while it’s interesting, I’m not sure it’s to the wine’s benefit. Emphasis, in that last sentence, on the “not sure”; I’m more than a little uncertain about how to assess this wine? Good? Trying to hard? I dunno. (10/09)

Wehl, en, let's take a look

Studert-Prüm 2006 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2 07 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Sweet flowers made of metal and cold sunshine, but it’s the steel that’s growing ever more dominant in this wine, which is insistent and powerful despite the apparent lightness of its carriage. It’s still difficult for me to accept that this is the weight one must expect from a Spätlese, but I guess that’s the modern paradigm. Drink very soon, or let it age. (8/09)