WTN: German Riesling Spätlesen

[Otto]

Yesterday we had a small tasting of German Riesling. We knew what wines were served but not the order. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the 2006s were showing as that has not been a year I have generally enjoyed.

Robert Weil Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese 2004 - Rheingau; 8% abv
Not the best showing of this wine. Quite confected sweetness and lacking the raciness of another recent bottle. Not bad, though, just different.

Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese 2006 - Mosel; 8,5% abv
A really harmonious, gorgeously open scent, a bit of botrytis perhaps, but still smells clean. Rich, but with good acidity and the richness and raciness are showing harmoniously for a change (I found them quite unfocused earlier on). Very nice!

Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese 2006 - Mosel; 8,5% abv
Quite mute at first. It seemed much like the previous wine but a bit heavier, not so elegant. But the somewhat disjointed character I found in this earlier on had corrected itself and now it was a nice young wine, though obviously in need of age. It seems I had misjudged the 2006s previously.

Schaefer-Fröhlich Monzinger Helenberg Riesling Spätlese 2007 - Nahe, 7,5% abv
Much sulphur on the nose. Quite soft and sweet. This wasn't showing too well last night, but I'm sure that must mostly be because of its youth?

Dönnhof Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese 2006 - Nahe; 8,5% abv
Just gorgeous. Ripe but not too tropical in its aromas, quite a steely style when compared to the others here (and here I always thought that Dönnhof wasn't ever a particularly steely style of wine!). Good acid; seems drier than most others on show, rich but refreshing; very moreish. Lovely.

Schaefer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spätlese Gold Kapsel 2007 - Nahe; 7,5% abv
Clean, crisp, floral, very ripe but well enough structured to be perfectly enjoyable.

Fr. Haag Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2010 - Mosel, 7,5% abv
So primary that it showed very awkwardly even though the other wines certainly weren't old! Completely in pieces. Hold.


While cleaning up, our host opened up a Glaetzer Amon-Ra 2010 from Barossa. It's a supermassive black wine so heavy that it has a gravitational pull equivalent to a supermassive black hole. It's not a wine that man swallows; it's a wine that swallows man. Run away if you think you can escape the event horizon. Primary. Hold. For astronomically long periods of time.

[David M. Bueker]

Nice set of wines Otto!

I love the 2008 Donnhoffs. I also have a bunch of 2006 Willi Schaefer wines, and am holding them for the most part. Perhaps I will look in.

[Craig Winchell]

Schaefer-Fröhlich Monzinger Helenberg Riesling Spätlese 2007 - Nahe, 7,5% abv
Much sulphur on the nose. Quite soft and sweet. This wasn't showing too well last night, but I'm sure that must mostly be because of its youth?

Otto, sounds like a flawed wine to me, rather than youthful. It's a 2007. Sulfur should easily have been bound by now (assuming SO2), and certainly H2S should be nonexistent. Softness indicates lack of acidity. Save it too long and it will just fall apart. To me, soft and sweet equals cloying, exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for in German whites, even at the much higher QmP levels.

[David M. Bueker]

Schaefer-Fröhlich Monzinger Helenberg Riesling Spätlese 2007 - Nahe, 7,5% abv
Much sulphur on the nose. Quite soft and sweet. This wasn't showing too well last night, but I'm sure that must mostly be because of its youth?

Otto, sounds like a flawed wine to me, rather than youthful. It's a 2007. Sulfur should easily have been bound by now (assuming SO2), and certainly H2S should be nonexistent. Softness indicates lack of acidity. Save it too long and it will just fall apart. To me, soft and sweet equals cloying, exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for in German whites, even at the much higher QmP levels.

Unlikely that it's flawed. Sometimes the sulphur levels get a little high, and they take a long time to calm down. Also the extended lees contact (pretty sure S-F does this) gives the wines a cheesy/leesy character that can seem very similar or accentuate the sulphur character.

By your logic all J. J. Prum wines are flawed. They usually take 10+ years to shed their sulphur.

Highly unlikely the wine will fall apart either. 2007 was a soft vintage, but then so was 1997, and those wines are signing now!

[Bob Parsons Alberta]

Nice notes and discussion. I have to tell you all about the new German wines I spotted downtown yesterday!

[Otto]

I love the 2008 Donnhoffs. I also have a bunch of 2006 Willi Schaefer wines, and am holding them for the most part. Perhaps I will look in.

Just to make sure you read the vintage correctly, this was a 2006 Dönnhof. But good to hear, I hope we'll see some here. Though that seems unlikely.

[David M. Bueker]

Oops...thought that one said 2008. I either need to read more slowly or perhaps get glasses.

[Otto]

Oops...thought that one said 2008. I either need to read more slowly or perhaps get glasses.

Understandable from my note, I must admit. It didn't seem like the '06s I have had before and was very surprised when it was revealed what was in my glass.

[Craig Winchell]

David, remember that I haven't had JJ Prum since the early 80s, but it wasn't like that then. I used to sell German whites in the 70s, and they just were not known for their excessive sulfurs back then, and I find it had to believe they are known for that now. As to soft and hard, we probably are working off different definitions. I think of soft as lacking acidity. Others look at it as malic vs. tartaric (malic is sometimes called a "hard" acid due to the way it hits the palate). If so, I apologize for not using your definition, or understanding Otto's description.

Getting back to sulfur, given sterile bottling through membrane of RS laden wine, more than 50 ppm free seems excessive (and indeed many use less). As it scavenges O2 which always gets in to a certain extent during bottling, and combines with the understandably low aldehydes, it would tend to immediately decrease in the unbound form. 2-3 years down the road, it shouldn't be noticeable. I don't doubt that what you're saying is true, there is obviously something I don't understand about German winemaking techniques.

[David M. Bueker]

Craig,

All I can say is that I have had 20 year old Prums that still showed sulphur.

As for rieslings that show soft, the rs levels are so much higher than they used to be that experience from the 70s and early 80s is not all that relevant.

[Andrew Bair]

Hi Otto -

Thank you for the interesting notes - sounds like a fun tasting!