I recently picked up a selection of 2009 JJ Prum Rieslings ( 3 of each) - I know these wines have a long drinking window but I was wanting to draw on the experience of the board as to when I should open the first bottle of each below to track the development of each.
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Kabinett
I would certainly try one of each right away! Let us know what you think.
+1
And, bear in mind, I am not normally a “drink one now” kinda guy, but I find Prums do drink well young, although they often need lots of air to blow-off excessive sulphur. I think popping one now is especially prudent in light of your goal to track them over time.
If you really don’t want to pop one of each all that soon, I’d say pop one of the GH Rieslings now, one of the Kabinetts now. I feel if you don’t want to pop one of each of the Spats. right now you really should wait until 2019 to do it — now or (much) later, ya know what I mean?
Is JJ Prum holding strong with the sulphur regimen?
Or have they dialed it back?
[Or maybe I’m thinking of Huet?]
I’m going to go ahead and say that I would not open any of these right away. I have found really young Prum to be sulfury to the point of reduction where I sometimes can’t get the off aromas to blow off with any amount of aeration short of the wine being oxidized after multiple days. I’d give the basic Kabinett at least a couple of years and wait at least 4-5 before trying any of the others. That’s just me. Maybe I am oversensitive to the aromatic effects of SO2.
Generally speaking, I don’t know.
Anecdote: all 3 bottles of '07 Prum (2 WS Spats, and 1 WS Aus) that I opened over a year ago were not sulphur-ridden.
I had the 09 Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese a couple of weeks ago. It was probably the seventh wine I’d had that night, and my palate was far from on-point, but the blast of sulphur that hit me immediately was too much. For me, this is a “let 'em sleep” wine.
I love the '09 Germans, but I was seriously disappointed by the various Prum Spatlesen. Tasted more like Guwerz than anything I recognize as Riesling. The '07s were utterly profound and an '09 Auslese was nice, so I would hold off.
The 2010’s were quite lovely earlier this year as well. Also, if one looks just a little one can find pristine bottles Prüm from the '70s and '80s.
Drinking my 1983’s now. Still holding my 1990’s.
Still holding, as in “have not yet tasted one”?
I just have the feeling that I read somewhere that they were dialing back on the sulphur.
But maybe I am confusing that in my memory with Huet.
Anyway, as long as Prum hangs tough with the sulphur, then you can age them forever.
But if they go soft, like Huet, then you need to start thinking about premox.
Even a somewhat recent bottle of the regular, non single vineyard Kab (I forget the vintage, maybe '07 or '08 opened about a year ago) was so sulfur ridden that it was completely undrinkable to my taste and that of a friend, even on day 2.
Eric Ifune wrote:
Drinking my 1983’s now. Still holding my 1990’s.
Still holding, as in “have not yet tasted one”?
I may open one every few years. I’ll generally hold onto JJ Prum longer than other Germans. I have some going back to 1959 and I enjoy them with some age, so I’m not concerned about them getting too old.
My 1988 WS Spatlesen are drinking beautifully at the moment… perfect summer wines
Nathan – I think you’re right. In the past decade, they seem to have been less consistently sulfuric on the nose when they were young. You count on that in the past, and often pick out the Prum blindly based on that.
Since the mid-2000s I’ve found some had that signature and others didn’t at all. Some even seemed one-dimensional and sugary when first popped. FYI, this is based on blind tastings with other Mosels. And I’m talking about the lower Pradikats – Kabinett and Spatlese. Generally, they still seem to have more spritz than the average Mosel.
I would just add that I now routinely decant young Mosels. It really exposes their finer points and dissipates any sulfur.
Based on long history, unless something has changed, these will outlive almost everything. So here’s my take:
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese - check in 2017
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese - check in 2024
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese - check in 2020
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - check in 2017
2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Kabinett - check in any time
Dan Kravitz
I’ll be over later Eric so we can open that '59. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Had the good fortune to try #s 2, 3 and 4 on your list last night. Very, very nice.
Dave
ITB Calicaro Wine
www.calicaro.com
I like Dan Kravitz’s advice. We opened an ‘09 Graacher Spatlese at Arigato here in Santa Barbara last night with Mike Brooks’ tasting/dining group. It was enjoyable, with some sulfur, but very youthful and fairly simple. As Dan says, the Spatlese- and Auslese-level wines will basically last forever, so you might as well wait until they’ve attained at least a little maturity.