Sometimes Dr Loosen wines just seem a bit simple, sometimes they seem like they will not age, but when you buy the right stuff in the right vintages by merkin can they be fantastic.
Riesling Auslese GoldKap Erdener Pralat 1997, Dr Loosen
Bit orange, which I suppose shouldn’t worry me as it is so old and so ripe. Still gives me a moment of doubt when I pour wines of this colour. The nose has ultra-pure lemon fruit and an incredible mineral character which just burns its stylish personality across your mind. It is very fruity. It is just so charming but also rigorous in its lively style. The palate also has a screaming acidity and bonkers minerality which add to its memory forming character. The lemon rich fruit is better than real lemons actually are. If you could imagine the worlds most finely balanced and refreshing, rather than heroic, margarita, with an incredible complexity and a real level of life then it wouldn’t be as good as this.
“So old..”! At a mere twelve? My goodness. Surely Riesling can age longer. Now I don’t say it should, but just that twelve is still pretty young. You may remember Mr Muller shared with us a far older wine, perhaps the forty-five? It was still in the first (okay, second) flush of youth.
Even with the preservative powers of all that sulphur in German Riesling, 12 years is still a good innings for a white wine. Sure, we’ve had older, but they were very different beasts to this.
Hmm!
Do you know i am not at all sure that red wine ages longer (better)? If it is stored well your white can have the qualities required to develop over a long time. that’s not to say that aging is necessarily the means of judging. But do you rememeber the lovely Montrachet we had at DRC? It sticks in the mind more than any of the reds we loved. And boy did we love them!
We’ve had amazing old Le Montrachet, not least those Lafon dodgy vintages at the Cherwell Boathouse. However, out of all of them I’ve had I’m not unconvinced that the best one I’ve tried was the youngest, a 2004 Lafon at a chum of Jeremy’s in Puligny. The life it throbbed with was totally compelling; a moving experience for the lover of fine things. I would still claim 12 years is a long life for white wines. Maybe in your Burgundy and Alsace-starved locality you have not had as many oxidised whites as me.
We would expect red wines to hang around for longer, if not necessarily improve, as they have tannins with are a powerful anti-oxidant.
Better, I feel, to drink things when they have plenty of life left in them. I felt so disappointed by the decaying Miguoa a few days ago.
I agree, David, youth and vitality are wonderful things in wine (and other things).