Not necessarily a broad reaching example, but Heymann Lowenstein Winningen Uhlen B,R, and L are terribly different wines made the same way from a contiguous vineyard. These are big dry wines, but show the distinct differences that can exist in a tiny area.
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I’ve certainly had dry rieslings that I could peg immediately as riesling, but I’ve also found many that did not show much of the characteristic varietal aromas.
Jamie Goode wrote a piece some years back explaining how sugar encourages the release of aromas. As I recall, the aroma compounds, in effect, compete with the sugar when dissolved, and when the cork is pulled, they sort of burst out, particularly when there is a lot of R.S. Someone with a grounding in chemistry could no doubt refine the explanation.
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That’s true. Rieslings with noticeable residual sugar release more aromas than dry Rieslings.
If you didn’t know already, von Hövel ceased operations earlier this year. You mentioned the estate in an earlier comment on this thread.
I didn’t realize that. What’s the story? And who owns the vineyards now?
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“The generally poor economic situation, particularly that of the von Hövel winery, as well as private setbacks and disagreements within the von Kunow family, have now led to the end,” wrote Dirk Tenbrock in the Trierischer Volksfreund. Almost all of the vineyards that von Hövel leased from Schmitt-Reuter have been abandoned and should have been grubbed up and cleared with no takers. The 5.8-ha Oberemmeler Hütte was offered for free in an ad. According to a reliable source, Egon Müller has leased the 2.85-ha in Scharzhofberg.
In 2014, von Hövel nearly doubled in size to 22 ha when Max von Kunow took over the Schmitt-Reuter vineyards. This acquisition included 10 ha of vineyards in Krettnach, Niedermennig, Oberemmel, and Wiltingen.
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Just to be clear, the winery is looking for someone to lease Hütte at no cost. I believe someone accepted the offer.
Great vineyard. Hopefully someone who will do it justice
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Truly an unbelievable sentence to read.
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Hütte is classified as a grand cru by the VDP. But it’s a far cry from Burgundy, where Guibert-Guillot acquires ca. 5 ha for an estimated 26.4 million euros.
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Understood. But, essentially worthless?
One very important point with Riesling is the need to spend some time with younger ones and decant older examples.
A really good Riesling in youth can go all sorts of places in the first 3 hours after opening. It is ideal to open them in a setting where you can observe the wine at various points for at least a couple of hours.
Older Rieslings- meaning 10+ years- really need some decant time. For auction wines and really top commercially released examples- 4 hours is a good starting point. This is especially true for 20+ year old Auslesen- many of them taste like apple juice when first opened, but after a few hours in the decanter they come alive. The change is even more dramatic than it is for most red wines in my experience.
If you want to be a bit more cautious with a given bottle, then double decanting and leaving the bottle open for several hours works well too- just allow more time. The nice thing about this approach is you slow things down a bit and can better control the process. I often do this the morning of a tasting and then at that point in the day when I think the wine is ready- just put the cork back in and reopen at dinner.
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That is excellent, rarely any chat about this topic.
For young Riesling I go through length (well, open several bottles sort of effortlessly 
) to be able to follow the fines over time as the journey to see where they end up with time is very exciting!
Didn’t know this was a thing for older rieslings - I have missed about the decanting completely. On the other hand it’s only 4-5 years I guess since fully appreciating whites as much (or more?) red wines. It’s kind of like learning what happens with Nebbiolo and time!
Back to the OP, I think there are different ways to go
about this, but the comments about tasting wines w similar RS levels against each other are well-conceived I think. There are a lot of differences between producers stylistically, so while it’s fun to try a range of vineyards from the same producer, I would also consider trying a range of producers from the same vineyard. I would suggest Kabinett from the same vintage from a vineyard like Piesporter Goldtröpfchen. You could choose a range of producers, from a recent vintage to get the primary fruit (some tend to close down). Maybe something like Kilburg, AJ Adam, Steinmetz, Dr Hermann, Rheinhold Haart, and Schloss Lieser would give you an interesting and varied range of styles.
Also for really old rieslings 50+ a larger Bordeaux glass can do wonders to bring them back to life.
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Just drink a lot of them 
NYC has a big Riesling scene. Post a note in event planner when you’re coming to town and we’ll pop some corks.
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