Wow! This bottle of Riesling by Rheingau organic and biodynamic pioneer PJ Kuehn really swept me off my feet!
2005 was a strong vintage for Riesling in Germany, yielding lots of excellent dry Rieslings, but also quite a few that seemed a bit overripe.
This one first shocked me with its intense golden nearly fluorescent yellow color, which made me think it could be one of these overripe specimen.
But then: the Riesling nose of your dreams! Intense peach and apricot, the kind that would make any sweet Spätlese proud. A very rich appearance indeed, also with notes that make me think a bit of biscuit dough, but nothing that seemed tired or somehow overripe here.
On the palate, a one of a kind opulence as well, but not the type that crushes you. It rather shows very elegant and pure of ripe apricot and peaches. The silkiness of the texture even accentuates the elegant aspect of this exuberance.
The wine has a clear inclination towards sweetness and sometimes one feels that it wants to take the lead. But then the sheer inner power of the wine jumps in, pushing the fruit over your palate, and balancing out any kind of sweet tiredness. Also, some herbal aromas, and an anise-like punctuation add a further dimension which make the wine anything else than boring. Further, there is also a fresh mineral feel which underlines this whole interaction of flavors. The wine is alive! On the back-palate the velvety structure transforms into an oily or balsamic essence of Riesling with compelling presence and leading into a long and complex finish.
What a great Riesling! And even if it’s true (what many critics of biodynamic wines say) that one has a hard time guessing the origin of this wine – I would rather guess it to be a Pfalz wine – this one is representing Terroir: the expression of a unique soil and climate, as well as the personality of a master at work!
(OK, even though I didn’t want to employ points so often anymore, I feel like i need to come up with some classification of this experience. Definitely a ++ experience in the Vimpressionist type of rating and something in the middle of the 90-100 point range of the Parker scale.)
PS: Check out the color. Unreal!
