Golden name, golden colour

This wine is from Roman Niewodniczanski*, the Saar’s arch-master of these weirdy almost-dry German Rieslings. His wines really impressed me when I first tried them, but I’ve had one or two since which have been a bit too weird. This seems nice enough, but rather forward.

Riesling ‘Goldberg’ 2007, Van Volxem

Quite a dark yellow colour, not the limpid green I’d normally expect from young Riesling. It has a powerful nose: baked apples, citrus and petrol. The nose really does seem quite forward. It is very attractive, don’t get me wrong, but just more mature than I’d expect. There is some nice slate minerality to it. The palate also seems rather forward, with the fruit moving more toward petrol than fresh limes. Real minerality and super acidity keep this zippy. This is pretty much dry, but with just a shade of residual sugar to balance the acidity. The harmony is pleasing. Good, long finish. This seems really quite enjoyable, but as it is already so forward I wonder how it will age.

*This is the most difficult word I know how to spell.