Monday, July 6, 2009

Die Erwartung war die Größte: German rieslings at the test

….The expectations were the best as this weekend offered a serious line of german Riesling, which were to be evaluated by the panel. However, the selection tasted, did unfortunately not convience us nor did it promise well for every german riesling presently.

Worldwide, wine critics presently praise the positive development within german wines, which finally now come out of the shadows of the über-sweet ‘Liebfraumilch’ and into the light of delicate and complex modern wines.

The first two wines offered no taste surprise to divert the attention away from the ”Hartzen-look” green ”christmas plate” bottles. Most wines were labelled pass - which may be a hard verdict! However, we give this score based on the criteria whether we would buy the wine again.  

·      Johannishof Riesling Kabinett Trocken Berg Roseneck 2007, Rheingau. Promising nose of raipe fruits. Quite contrary the taste is acidic and “young”. Generally is wellproduced but without any personal touch, hints or notes. 85P - pass

·      Johannishof Riesling Kabinett Johannisberg 'V' 2007 Rheingau. Little nose, but completely without any acidity. The wine almost appear as sweet fruit juice. Again well produced but too sweet. 85P -pass.

Hereafter the experience only got only more and more sweet.

·      Hermann Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Kupfergrube Riesling Spätlese 2005 (Nahe). Vaguely sparkling and with a slight taste of gooseberry jam. Again more sweetness and little acid which erases (or flattens) the structure of the wine. Its well produced but a sweet experience. Points were 87 (one at 90P). Borderline 

·      Karlsmühle Riesling Auslese Lorenzhöfer 1999 Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. Barley yellow in the glass and viscous and a funny nose of diesel! Sweet taste and again no acid. 84-85P pass

·      Karlsmühle Riesling Auslese Lorenzhöfer 2007 0,5 L, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. 84P pass

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi guys,

I was the one who picked out the wines for your tasting. I regret that they were not to your liking - I really didn't see that coming! As I've explained to Mads the objective from my point of view was to let you try the types of German Rieslings that aren't produced succesfully elsewhere but very much so in Germany. Some of the best, if not the best full-bodied, dry Rieslings are produced in Germany, but this style can also be found in Alsace and Austria and is therefore not particular to Germany. I decided to leave this type out since you had a limited number of bottles to try within your budget, but it could be interesting to do a tasting only with Grosses Gewächs Riesling to see how they suit your taste.
The selected wines you had represent good quality within their respectives categories, so I doubt whether you'll find much more enjoyment from other bottles of the same type.
Just a remark to the missing acidity. All the wines have more acidity than you will typically find in your Alsace Riesling, so its not that these wines don't have acidity - quite the opposite, actually. It's more that you didn't sense the acidity behind the residual sugar. A more useful term in this context would be the organoleptically founded sensation of acidity that takes the effect that sugar has on perceived acidity into consideration.
For reference I've listed the acidity content (tartaric acidity) in the respective wines here:

Johannishof B.R. Kab. Tr: no official data but around 8,5-9,5 g/l
Johannishof Kab. 'V': 9,5 g/l
Dönnhoff S.K. SL: no off. data but around 8-9 g/l
Karlsmühle AL '99: 8,1 g/l
Karlsmühle AL '07: 9,2 g/l
Mathern Eiswein '04: 10,4 g/l

Did you have the Eiswein?

/Ulrich