This was recommended to me as a serious wine at a bargain price. It is a nice drink certainly, but is not going to set the world on fire with its complexity.
Riesling Spatlese Enkircher Ellergrub 2007, Weiser-Kunstler
A nice, fruity nose, with that pleasing baby fat character of Riesling. This is in the full flush of attractive youth. It doesn’t have much in the way of complexity, alas. The palate is pretty similar: nice fruit, soft and charming, but nothing to really excite. I like it very much for a tenner a bottle, but let us be honest in that this is a quaffing wine in comparison to the loveliness of producers like Prum, Haag, Schaefer, Thanisch and so on. Sorry, Jeremy, whilst I am pleased to own several bottles of this (I’ll drink it when I bloody need a drink in the summer) this is not the thrilling entity of intensity which you had promised. Would I recommend this? Probably to a person of limited means who likes Kraut wine, but even though I am of hilarious limited means I’d rather drink something nicer and more expensive.
I am with the J-Dog on this one. In the Summer it was utterly delicious and at a tenner a stupendous deal. I thought it was poised and elegant. I love that tension between nerve and floral elements. It dances!
Maybe it danced last summer, but the two bottles I have tried lacked zip and nerve. A reasonable wine, but no great shakes.
David,
Someone of your tasting experience should be capable of realizing when a wine is closed and when it is not; It was the same thing for Saarstein 05 (considerably less good in any case, so partly forgiven), for La Chapelle 1996 and other such instances. Now let us assume that I am right on this one, a tall assumption at this stage, I realize. What is the point of drinking the rest of it this summer seeing as it provides such limited pleasure? What would be the harm in letting age a little more? At the very least, please contemplate it decanting it for 12-24 hours.
This wine is greatly superior to any Thanisch spatlesen I have had in the past. You were just smitten by our pretty hostess.
OK, good point. I’ve had another German 2007 recently which was definitely closing up. The rest will be going to Oxford or coming to Burgundy to be left for a period of time. Based on your enthusing I will give these wines every chance to perform.
This foils one of my plans. I’m being filmed for a documentary about schizophrenia. I met the producer today, lovely lady. She wants to film me tasting a wine and talking about it; I insisted she should also have a glass. Since we are having lovely weather at the moment I thought nothing could charm more than a lovely bottle of German Riesling. If the 2007s are closing up I’ll have to find some mature wines and they are not as generally crowd-pleasing as Riesling in its first full flush of youth.
Or just open them a long time ahead of drinking.
By the way: am impressed by your reasonableness.