© Copyright 1997 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved.

Weingut Steitz 1991 Steckweiler Mittelberg (Nahe) Riesling Trocken ($8.49) Question: Given that good Rhine (and Mosel) Rieslings are capable of aging remarkably well, can the same be said of the newfangled "Trocken," wines vinified bone-dry in contrast with the usual German custom of leaving Rieslings slightly sweet with acidity in delicate balance? Answer: This six-year-old example certainly did. It's amazingly youthful, beautifully structured and full of complex, delicious fruit. It's a very pale straw color. Delicious aromas, white fruit and pine and a Riesling "mineral" scent verging on the classic "diesel." Fully dry and tartly acidic, tasty tangerine and strawberry flavors, loads of fruit despite its years. Excellent balance, with flavors consistent in a very long, clean and tart finish. Very fine wine. (Better still, a fine food wine, with the stuffing needed to stand up to a fiery Ethiopian doro wat.) Shipped by J & H Selbach, Zeltinger, Mosel, Germany; imported by Willett Distributing Inc., Bardstown, Ky. (Sept. 3, 1997) All my wine-tasting reports are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores.