WTN: 89 Gruaud, 81 Wegeler Bern. Doctor BA Eiswein

A couple of good wines with dinner, one of them exceptional.

1989 Gruaud Larose – cedar/cassis nose, solid wine with a fair bit of remaining soft tannin and good length. I didn’t think that this bottle showed as good fruit levels as the last one I tasted, but nonetheless enjoyable.

1981 Wegeler Deinhard Bernkasteler Doctor Beerenauslese Eiswein – a very rare bottle indeed. The founder was export director for Deinhard in the late 19th century and thus the double barrelled name on the label – they also bottled simply as Wegeler. Making a Beerenauslese Eiswein in a below average vintage like 1981 would have been a matter o luck as well as design and more likely, I think, in the Rheingau than the Mosel. Browning amber colour, rich nose of orange peel and marmalade and then after awhile in the glass a definite hint of nutmeg. Rich and quite sweet in the mouth (only 7% alcohol,) with exceptional length. A real treat. Would sell for several hundred dollars these days, if you could find it. Research shows that they also made an identical quality wine (Eiswein BA) from Bernkasteler Graben that year, a near by property.

1989 was a good year for Gruad, maybe the best in the century up to that point, except for 1962. I bought some and drank them all up quite a few years ago, not realizing what a long term proposition the 1989s are.

What caught my attention, though, was your comment about fruit, which reminded me of something a French winemaker said at a Burgundy tasting a month or so ago. "Your age the wine, forget the fruit," he said. I'm still thinking about that. OK, with age of course the fruit declines, presumably replaced by more interesting minerals, but "forget" the fruit. I don't know.

Fruit should be present in any decent 89 - which isn't that old. We see some fruit transformation in clarets a decade older, but even they have reserves. Heck, I've tasted wines back into the 1920s and earlier that still had acceptable levels of interesting fruit - many must have been tannin monsters when y oung to have lasted so long.

Also youthful whack in the face with bowl of berries fruit isn't what we are talking about on mature wines, it is mature fruit.

I'd expect a bit more from the 89 Gruaud, which definitely should have fruit!

I like the '89, but for my tastes '82 and '86 are clearly ahead as the best Gruauds I've had since the '59 (I've never had '61 or '62).

edited for extraneous apostrophe

Yeah, I haven't touched my 86 yet. Was thinking about starting in on the 95 soon.