DC German Wine Society 2020 Tasting

The DC chapter of the German Wine Society held its annual 2020 vintage tasting at the beautiful Colonnades condo. Phil Bernstein from Bassins led the tasting. He is very well versed with German wines and can always lead you to some great wines when at the store.

We had a starter of the 2018 Achillee Cremate d’Alsace Zero Dosage which definitely defines zero dosage. A bit too austere for me even me though I tend to like champagnes with less. This was a bit much - killed the fruit.

All below are 2020 vintage

Started off with two feinherbs:
Weiser Kunstler Feinherb - Very light color, just a hint of yellow. Couldn’t coax much of nose But the palate showed nice lime with fairly high acidity. This and the Lauer I thought were a bit sweeter than I expected.
Peter Lauer Barrel X Feinherb - Again the very light color but a more floral nose. A little sweeter with lower acidity than Weiser. Another enjoyable food wine. Nice apple fruit on a long finish.

Then some GGs.
Emrich Schonleber Fruhlingsplatzchen GG - A big jump here! A grilled grapefruit nose. This was a very intense full throttle wine. You’d be surprised it was a German Riesling. A ton of fruit coming thru - melon, lime, grapefruit, lemongrass.
Emrich Schonleber Halenberg GG - And if the prior wine wasn’t enough, this took it up one notch further. Same nose but a little softer with even more of intense flavor of lemongrass, apples and while I know they don’t use oak barrique, I swear I had some on the palate.?? These will age!!!

Back to the German Rieslings we grew up with
Willi Schaefer Graacher Kabinett - Took a bit to coax a light citrus nose . But the palate was a full flavor stone fruit - lots of peaches to me. Very nice Riesling character and classic Pradikat style.
von Schubert Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Kabinett - Talk about Classics, this fits that moniker. An interesting ash nose probably some leftover fermentation but quite appealing. On the palate I got tropical fruit like mango, star fruit, and lime.

Must have Prum!
JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett - I love Prum and these were very nice classic wines, but a bit boring compared to the prior wines. A can’t complain about the quality - perfectly made, but I didn’t get as excited as I normally do with Prum - I don’t think my palate was dead, I was only sipping. Still a very nice wine with some sulphur on the nose. Definitely will keep
JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - A more intense and riper wine than the prior one but very similar. Bigger mouth feel showing stone fruit. A very solid wine

Finally the stickies
Selbach Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Rotlay Auslese - First impressions of the nose reminded me of my dog Bruno, who I find has a beautiful aroma! This is a very very big sweet wine pushing BA. Tons of apricots on the palate. When I say sweet, it isn’t as sweet as a Sauternes but still definitely a sipper.
Weiser Kunstler Enkricher Ellergrub Auslese - A grapefruit scent. Intensely sweet but not cloying. A huge mouth feel. Just beautiful.

The GG’s were definitely my favorites from the bunch, but I though all showed very well. A very well run tasting.

Nice notes. How much air did you give the Emrich GGs? I have a 2020 Halenberg on deck, and based on my 2019 experience it needed about 3 hours to really open up this young.

Great wines / tasting. Phil is a cool guy.

Agreed. Have been buying from Phil for many years.

They said they opened those two hours earlier. Definitely needed it!

Thank you for taking the time to write this up, Brian.

Do you think your tastebuds’ opinion of sweet German wine has changed, or do you think the house style at Prum has changed?

Or maybe a little bit of both?

I don’t think their style changed. I think they have a lot of competition nowadays and some very unique styles that I find appealing are available. For example, I never heard of Weiser-Kunstler, Falkenstein, Martin Mullen, Eva Fricke, or Rings 20 years ago but are some of my favorites today. I’m also leaning more to the drier wines and higher acidity wines lately. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Prum, just it wasn’t holding my attention that night.

I drink lots of high, high acid German wines, many of those you mention, and I do think it has changed my palate.

When I want something sweet I tend to go for a high acid Feinherb.

Interesting thoughts on palate changes.

Acid as a dominant characteristic interests me less and less as time goes on.

This wine is brilliant in almost any vintage since 2004 and reasonably priced. Also in Magnum

IMHO, Prum wines don’t show as well young as do wines from many other producers. However, they age wonderfully gaining tremendous complexity with age.

When you uncork a bottle of late model Prum, do you still get Da Funk?

Or is Da Funk defunct?

Obviously it’s been a long long time since I’ve opened a Prum.

i haven’t noticed that.

You talking about the kerosene? I had a Prum spaetlese a few months ago with a few years bottle age, it had it but not overpowering.

I think the reference is to sulpher.

If it’s not overpowering, then it’s not Prum.

Again, I haven’t even purchased a Prum, much less opened a Prum, in many many moons, so all I have are y’all’s field reports to go by.

But my guess is that I would have little to no interest whatsoever in a less-than-overpowering Prum.

The tragedy of encountering such a thing might be more than I would want to deal with.

Got it. I probably roll up the sulfer with the petrol / kerosene aromas I usually expect from aged German rieslings. The Prum I had was still a big interesting wine, I just don’t remember thinking it as having “funk”. Sadly it wasn’t from my cellar or at my house, so I don’t have notes or full details on it.