I went last year for the first time. Plenty of dry Rieslings to sample. My first real tasting with mostly dry wines. Many were stellar. Hoping to make it again this year.
Looking forward to the Saturday tasting at Craft!
Will be there this Saturday at 11:30 too! Amazing wines last year, I’m sure this year would top that!
I’ll be there at the 10:30 session handing off my black coffee for a stem.
I will be there for every seminar on Friday, the BYOB, the Grand Tasting and the Gala!
I just posted on the first Rieslingfeier related event here:
I’ll be at two of the seminars on Friday afternoon, and then back up for the Grand Tasting (got both 10:30 and 11:30 so I have time) and the dinner (Donnhoff table).
I just got into the city for the weekend. Those poor folks headed to Falltacular have no idea what they’re missing ![[stirthepothal.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f40faec63ca1018898a40805efbf9f0066a3d205.gif "[stirthepothal.gif]"){kind=small}
. I’ll be at all of the seminars, the 10:30 tasting and sitting with Johannes Selbach for the gala dinner.
Any updates/highlights?
I must admit I was a bit disappointed in the wines at the grand tasting. The highlight was getting to talk to a number of wine producers, who were quite friendly and engaging and to get to see and talk with David Schildknecht (I used to buy a lot of wine from David when he was in retail in DC and it is always nice to catch up with him when I get to see him). There were certainly good wines there (esp. at Selbach, Schloss Lieser and Donnhoff), but too many wines seemed more designed to make “political” statements than to be drunk. In fact, my favorite dry wines were from a non-German producer - Hirtzberger. And, best wines from at least two producers known for their dry wines (Fricke and Hofgut Falkenstein) were wines with some residual sugar - and these were quite good.
By far the biggest disappointment was going to a table labeled Egon Muller and finding a wine from Australia, one from the Slovak Republic and then a regional Kabinett.
Interesting. What do you mean when you say “too many wines seemed more designed to make “political” statements than to be drunk”?
They needed a bit of residual sugar.
I liked the Muller Australian, packed with petrol and salinity, pleasantly surprising. I also liked the Leitz and Vollenweider wines very much.
The Hirtzbergers were incredible.
I would certainly have looked out for Leitz…and Lieser!
On CT, acyso rates 2015 Lieser very highly, does anyone know who this is?
A So on this board
Really…small world eh. Thanks!
You called? I missed Rieslingfeier for the first time this year because of a trip to none other than the Mosel. We tasted most of the 15 Schloß Lieser lineup with Lara Haag (Thomas’s daughter). They were incredible wines. A bit on the fleshy side, but good cut and acidity all the same.
I thought the Leitz’s GG lineup was quite good. Donnhoff’s 15 Hermannshohle Spat was quite tasty. It was my first time tasting Von Winning’s GG wines, and honestly, they blew me away. Its possible that’s because because of the large tasting setting that makes them stand out with their sheer size, but I thought them to be massive, but balanced, outstanding wines. I think some people have mentioned they find their wines overoaked, but I didn’t get personally feel that way. The only disappointment was finding out their prices.
Biggest disappointments for me were JB Becker and Muller. Muller, simply because I didn’t really get to taste any of the Muller lineup, instead just the Slovakian/Australia/QbA wines which were rather unspectacular. Becker was pouring a couple 14s, which I found pretty unpleasurable.
A 2015 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Spatlese on Sunday which was an entirely satisfying wine.
Speaking of acyso, I brought a 2014 Clos Roche Blanche Pif to an event with non-wine geeks and at one point a friend looked up from his notebook computer and asked “are you a member of the NY-hipster-unicorn crowd”? My response was - “Yes. You’re reading Adrian’s review on Cellartracker, aren’t you?”
It’s actually quite a good wine. 