I have a bottle of '01 Maximin Grunhauser Abstberg Spatlese. Think it would be worth opening or should I wait a couple more years?
Agree with Nathan that 01 MC Mandelring Scheurebe Spatlese is a truly outrageous wine - never had the chance to drink it straight on release, but have opened several bottles over the past year and most have been quite exceptional (with one or two ‘merely’ very good ones).
Peter, thanks for the comments. I’ll take a look at my cellar to see what 01s I have that we can try. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Maureen, I tried the 2001 Egon Muller auction Kabinet last year by mistake and you are spot on; the wine is a rock star and I promised myself to refrain from drinking my other five bottles for a long time. The Mosel Fine Wine boys loved the auction Kabinet but were not over the moon (unlike the J.J Prums and Haags) in their praise which I believed the Egon Muller deserved.
Robert, hello and best regards. I am sorry that geography does not let us drink burgundies more frequently together, but I know we are getting more than our fair share of excellent old bottles. Somehow great burgundies and great German wines seem to have a special relationship to drinkers. I need to do another Mosel extravaganza this summer in honor of Mark R and drink the older stuff.
Enzo, which 2001 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr did you drink? Jean and David loved them all but was it a spatlese or an auslese. Has anyone opened a goldcap?
Question for all, in general will you begin drinking your 2002 rieslings before the 2001 bottles by the same producers? I think we are going to have fun doing side by side tastings of the same producers and vineyards for both vintages.
Joel, do not bother on my account to see what 2001 rieslings you have as I have a full house of all my top producers, of all levels including lots of auction wines; what I have, you have. Sorry to miss the Coche Dury tasting. I previewed to lineup, it should be extraordinary. I am at the Merchant of Venice that evening. In my previous post I alluded to a summer Mark R rieslingfest, he would like us to do it! On a hot summer day with the ball and chain away, I think I should order a couple of food trucks and open several cases of different german wines from the eighties and nineties. In Mark’s honor, no burgundies.
I have not been drinking many from either vintage. I am planning on doing a side by side 2001/2002 tasting at some point in the next year or so though.
Peter, your idea is a great one. I’m there for it! You will be missed on the 28th.
I think 2002 is the vintage to be drinking and I’ve dipped into my stash pretty regularly over the past 18 months. Some standouts - Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg spatlese, anything by Fritz Haag ( just repurchased the kabinett, it was that good and a real kabinett, which is hard to find), and Donnhoff’s Kupfergrube, which is just stunning right now.
I’m not touching 2002s until after 2001s mosttly because I think the vintage is almost as good and will be quite long lived but I also knew more by then so I bought better than 2001s.
Peter, you should try a couple of 02s before you get too locked in to that idea - it’s really a softer vintage, I think - and I really like 02s and bought heavily. It just drinks better than any other vintage since 98 right now.
Speaking of 98s, those wines are drinking so, so well… (the MC Burgergarten Spatlese halbtrocken recently was amazing, and the Scheurebes - otherworldly)
Maureen,
I agree with your post and, based on my very limited sampling of 2002 Mosel spatleses, I find the 2002 vintage to be fruit forward and my guess they will drink earlier than the 2001 vintage, although both vintages will be very good to excellent and long lived. I remember in early tastings liking the structure and acidity of the 2001s. Strangely my initial impression on release of Donnhoff bottles was a preference for 2002 but loving both vintages.
Has anyone recents tasted bottles from 2001 and 2002 from the same vineyard and producer and if so how do the bottles reflect the respective vintages?
Thanks Maureen, I will start trying to work my way through. Especially looking at what I have more than half of the 4 cases I have are Kabinett so you’re right I should get started on drinking those.
A member posted an interesting link to a publication called Tong and the No 9 issue (the articles are worth a read) is on German wines included one the those silly one liners for each vintage on German Riesling Vintages. Without going into their mistakes, the one lines on the 2001 vintage was “top vintage, classic and elegant, ripe acidity, good botrytis” while 2002 was “more rounded and creamy than 2001.” My favorite was 1976, “vintage of the century”, oh yeah! Also the publication completely forgetting to mention 1988 vintage, one of my favorites. Why do I read these capsule reviews of vintages; and I always do, shame on me.