Whatup Shiraz!
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Cheers Robert! Hope to see you in person soon!
Exact same experience here. I donât even open any GGs young anymore. 10 is the minimum age. Before that more often then not they are dormant.
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Could you help me out with the math on the 9.5%? I get how you could get 11% if picked at 76 Oe but not sure how you satisfy SpĂ€tlese and trocken and get much lower than 10.5% or so. 76 Oe converts to 12.97 fully dry from the conversions I can find on the intertubes. Iâm just not sure how to convert g/l rs to Oe.
Thanks all for an interesting discussion. @Lars_Carlberg I get Mutter Anna every year from Jay (although this year it was Egon) and also have been buying a bit of Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle and a few other GGs for the last 5-10 years but havenât had many older examples.
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Sorry for the delayed response. I returned home from pruning vines. Despite a degree in economics, my math skills arenât strong anymore. Iâll ask Johannes instead. In the meantime, the minimum must weight for SpĂ€tlese might have been a little lower in 1989, and legally dry is up to 9 grams of sugar per liter. At Hofgut Falkenstein, we have had Kabinett trocken wines with about 80 degrees Oechsle and 10 percent alcohol. It depends on the efficiency of the alcoholic conversion in a given vintage. Some vintages have lower or higher conversion ratesâi.e., the conversion of sugar to alcohol.
My pleasure, Nathan. I love Mutter Anna. Egon is great, too.
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Today, I had a chance to ask Johannes. He said that a simple rule of thumb is Oechsle divided by 8. For example, 80 degrees Oechsle would be 10 percent alcohol and 76 degrees Oechsle would be 9.5 percent alcohol. A wine journalist visited us this afternoon, so I didnât have time to ask him more questions, and tomorrow I depart for Chicago, where thereâs a winter storm warning in effect.
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Thanks, that is a good enough explanation for me. Safe travels. Please let me know if you ever come through NC.
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From Schildknechtâs article [August 29, 2016]:
Whether a bit of residual sugar plays a vital role in the aging of Riesling has to my knowledge NOT [emphasis added] really been scientifically studied. But, paradoxically, a belief that it does is part of the received opinion among German wine growers, even those who bottle overwhelmingly trocken Rieslings.
If Schildknecht still wouldnât go out on a limb [regarding the ageworthiness of fully trocken Riesling, as recently as 2016], then I guess the jury is still out [regarding the question of ageworthiness].
I can assure you that Schildknecht doesnât question the ageability of completely dry German Riesling.
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The topic of do GGâs age well and when is the optimal time to drink them keeps coming up so I have decided to pull some older bottles. 2007 Keller Hubacker on Friday was flat out stunning. An extremely experience taster said it was the best dry German wine she has had in a very long time. One data point for aging and for optimal drinking time!
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07 GGs are fabulous right now. I think we can agree that AbtsE has become a stupendous wine (though Iâm unlikely to ever compare it to 07 G-Max, will need your notes for that one Robert 
)
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Among Auslese, SpĂ€tlese, Kabinett Trocken from the 80s, 90s, 00s some are way more interesting to drink than many Beaune 1er and Grand Cru. Not only for me. Itâs a common experience
You donât have to convince me!
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Last night opened up 09 Felseneck against some top wines from Ganevat, Richard Leroy, Bereche etc. This group of very franco-centric collectors and I all had the Felseneck as the #2 wine of the night barely behind an 02 Fonsalette Syrah, but Iâm willing to bet rhone showed especially strong being the only red on a table of whites.
The Fels was just coming into peak territory. Still fruit-focused but with those great petrol/tonic/herbs in the picture. Itâs not the highest-acid vintage but itâs still riesling, so had no trouble separating itself in terms of both cut and chuggability.
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Felseneck 09 and 10 are very very nice now
And probably the next decade+
Same goes for Dönnhoff and Schönleber GGs
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