Amazingly Botrytic German Riesling

This is not the sweetest German wine I’ve tried but it is amazingly Botrytis-influenced. Wines of this stunning purity need drinking on their own to savour their intense vivacity; pop a bottle one afternoon with an enlightened friend. This is not a wine to have with food, certainly not dessert.

I’ll try and write a note that does this entity justice, but what I really want to make palpably clear is that I am totally moved by the star-bright beauty of this sublime wine. It is breathtaking.

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Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr 2001, Fritz Haag

There is a real botrytis-influence to this nose, lots of peaches and cream. There is more: incredibly profound lime fruit and complex slate-minerality throb intensely as I’m sniffing. But for all of the livid life this displays there is nothing over-whelming or hard work about it, it is just a gorgeously alluring and intricate set of seductive smells. The elegance is tickling my ticklish bits most effectively. It is pretty youthful, too, with only hints of petrol showing. Cripes, it is acidic. Really devilishly acidic – the pain coming from my stomach suggests it is doing a pretty damned good job of trying to burn its way to and out of my feet. Yet, I like acidity (even if I don’t like pain) and this is in absolute harmony with the deliciously ripe citrus fruit and incredibly sophisticated minerality. It is not terribly sweet, but there is enough sugar there to keep the balance just fine. Drinking this lambent creation has illuminated a cold winter afternoon with rays of bewitching and mind-bending finesse. Brilliant! No rush to drink, but if you’ve got more than one go and pop a bottle now. Now, I say!

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