Opened on thursday night to remind myself as the 2017’s start to become available that I don’t have enough Schloss Lieser. There was such a strong sponti aroma that this was undrinkable, other than a small taste to confirm that the wine was otherwise sound. So I put a repour in it and sent it back the fridge to chill out. Now 36 hours later, the sponti is gone and the nose reveals ripe papaya and mango baking under a hot sun. On the palate, this is the most powerful expression of auslese Riesling that I can imagine. Vince Carter at full speed unabated to the rim. It’s not that the fruit or sweetness overwhelms the acid; it’s that there is so much of everything. It seems to linger indefinitely. Surely a baby six years out, and destined for greatness if you ask me.
Served with clams from blue moon fish. I will revisit this later tonight.
In my more limited experience with Schloss Lieser, there have been more misses than hits. Most of this experience is with vintages between 2000 and 2010, and just about all of the wines were consumed young. Would you say that there has been an uptick in quality over the past decade or so? Do you find that the wines need time in bottle? Or maybe i’ve just chosen poorly with my purchases…
Honestly Kevin I can’t say if anything has changed as I’ve only been purchasing these wines for the last 4 or 5 years. I have some 2001 that I bought as a late release and they’ve been fabulous but show hardly any development. For me, this is one of the top estates in mosel. I find the young ones to show typical sponti notes fairly regularly, but like this bottle I think those will pass. I have a preference for German Riesling with age on them. I buy six packs and open a bottle early to try to get a sense of where I think it will go, but for the other 5 I start drinking the kabinett at age 5, and spatlese/auslese much later, and I hope to open most of my auction and dessert wines before I die. But with the exception of Egon, mosel wines are absurdly underpriced in my view, so if Schloss Lieser isn’t doing it for you I’d move on to another. There are so many great producers right now.
Completely in agreement about the value proposition of Mosel wine. Seems unfathomable that some of the best wine in the world–i recognize the layers and layers of subjectivity supporting this claim–sits on shelves for about $30-$40/bottle.
Based on your note (and some others), i am eager to try another Schloss Lieser bottling.
I have tasted the 2012 NH spatlese twice since release ( and 2012 Kabinett once) and my experience has been great. I love this producer but my experience has only been 2006 onwards.
