2009 war in ganz Deutschland ein recht homogener fruchtig-leckerer Riesling Jahrgang. Das hat sich bei vielen Weinen gezeigt die schon sehr früh Spaß gemacht haben und auch dieser trockene Mosel-Riesling von Kultwinzer Rheinhard Löwenstein ist da keine Ausnahme. Read the rest of this entry »

Der 2009er Jahrgang ist ja an der Mosel bekannterweise sehr gelungen. Auch dieser Riesling vom Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein reiht sich in diese Riege der leckeren Weine ein. Read the rest of this entry »

So last weekend my blog turned 5 ! And actually I wouldn’t even have realized it, didn’t I flip through my archives last week way back to the first post. Anyway, so I was in Berlin for the weekend doing some sight-seeing in our lovely capital and stopped by for a quick hello at Martin’s Berlin Riesling Cup 2010 event which was just going on.

And what luck, I just arrived at the right time participating for 2 flights that contained the top 3 wines of the evening! Happy Birthday to me I thought when I left, and thanks of course to Martin who’s probably the most relaxed wine lover I know.
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We took a small trip to Rheingau last Sunday and visited some estates which held their annual vintage presentation. Read the rest of this entry »

This basic Riesling from Ansgar Clüsserath Estate of Trittenheim, which is a village along the Mosel, is marketed as a wine reflecting the soil on which it grows. And indeed, after screening the color which is of medium intensity, one encounters a clear slate nose mixed with lime notes and a hint of peach. Read the rest of this entry »

This is my next aged Riesling-bottle, this time from the very very good 1976 vintage. It’s an eBay bottle from some quite totally unknown estate in the Mosel region, since I striclty found nothing about it on the net.
Therefore, and also because lots of people don’t appreciate aged white, I got it for very little money.
It is an Auslese which is the third highest Prädikat and comes before the well-known sweet wine Prädikate such as Trockenbeerenauslese or Eiswein.
Auslese means that only the best grapes in the vineyard are selected and the mustweight should be at least 95 Oechsle degrees. Most generally a Auslese comes with relatively low alcohol and rather high residual sugar. Nowadays the trend is that there are more and more “trockene Auslesen” being made, which means dry Auslesen, but for a 1970′s wine one can almost be sure it is a nondry wine.
We had it at the end of a dinner as a final bottle without any food accompanying it. The wine had golden colour with an amber hue. In the nose some Edelfirne of course reminding wax and honey as well as some orange zest. On the palate it was at first striking how low the alcohol level was. There was no indication on the label about the alcohol (at that time it wasn’t mandatory) but it must have already been low and by now it had nearly completely disappeared. My guess would be something like 4 to 6 %, and it was such that one could have the impression to taste grapejuice actually. Nevertheless it had a long finish with a fresh minty note. All in all the wine was still in very good shape regarding oxidation and cork, but lacked a bit of structure as it seemed a bit watery sometimes and of course was short of alcohol. I think it would be best drunk as a refreshing and light starter drink before a dinner.
86 points