WTN: 05 Max Ferd Richter B'berger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Auslese**

It takes some trickery to shorten the names of some of these wines to fit into the title space!

Part of a stay at home Valentines Day dinner last night, this was in fact the Cask 42 Auslese**. The nose is reticent as the bottle opens and evolves with the palate over time. A key with this wine seemed to be to let it warm. As its temperature changed this revealed a lot - first peach and nectarine, with some orange pith, fennel and even licorice. The it hit a grapefruit phase as it warmed a little, and at this point the wines structure started to shine, the fennel remained, and lovely acids making this balanced and complete, and just right for a fresh fruit dessert. With more time the spectrum moves to lemon and lime and the wine shows as more complete and contained. Nice experience, restoring my faith in Richter a little bit,

Cheers

Andrew

PS the other wine making up the dinner was the NV Bollinger Rose.

[David M. Bueker]

Restoring your faith? have you had bad experiences? Richter is not in the top echelon of Mosel producers, but they generally make very good wine.

Hi David,

A few of Richters 06's were frankenstein wines to me - waaay above their pradikat (e.g. Spatlese at 106g/l) and I just couldn't find the acid. No complexity to speak of either. I didn't buy any 07s but have heard someone else make exactly the same complaint about them.

[David M. Bueker]

Well 2006 is a Frankenstein vintage, so I would not say its specific to Richter.

The pradikats were lost to history in about 2003 (at least kabinett & spatlese). Global warming has been the cause of their demise.

Well 2006 is a Frankenstein vintage, so I would not say its specific to Richter.

The pradikats were lost to history in about 2003 (at least kabinett & spatlese). Global warming has been the cause of their demise.

That's true - but of the 06 wines I've tried Richter was by far the worst. I hope it was one maker's outcome for one year and normal transmission will resume shortly.

Don't get me started on Global warming...