Some more mingingly brilliant Alsace Grand Cru Rieslings

WINE TALK
1

Morning all,

Sorry, this is another early morning, feverishly excited report from last night’s tasting. You can read the full report here, but two of the wines were so mind-buggeringly, soul-wrenchingly good I just have to tell more people than my two regular readers.

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Sainte Catherine l’Inedit 2000 from Domaine Weinbach was clearly a big wine made from very ripe grapes, but its intense expression of vineyard character raised this to a much higher level of refined beauty than mere scale or ripeness can bring. The nose was amazing, livid and expressive, I loved it from when its very first aroma molecule drifted up my nose. The palate had scale as well, but its thrilling acidity and more of that beguiling minerality kept it perfectly balanced and made it a joy to drink. This was the nun’s nethers, alright.

The other wine I wish to rave about was even more ravishing. Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vendanges Tardives 2000 from Domaine Albert Boxler was easily one of the very, very best late-harvest Alsace Rieslings I have had in my life. The thing that did it for me was, even though it was ripe and confidently structured, it had breathtaking harmony. Loads of perfectly integrated, totally gorgeous acidity made it so mouth-watering you just wanted to drink more and more. Its totally sophisticated and viscerally compelling minerality made you want even more than you wanted when just thinking about the acidity. It blew my mind with its poise and completely spell-binding array of favours. Wine, of any form, does not get much better than this.

We also had Some Zind-Humbrecht Brand Riesling 2000 (really quite good) and a Z-H Rangen Riesling 2000 (oxidised and shagged-out*) plus a bottle of Cornas.

Sorry if this rant has been incoherent, but I am just so energised by tonight’s fine wine experiences that I feel people need to be told and that it is I who must tell them. The two wines above would wow anyone, from neophyte to jaded cynic; they not only wowed me but also twisted my faculties into new extremes of pleasure appreciation. As Brillat-Savarin said, “The limits of pleasure are yet to be defined or reached”; we pushed back those limits tonight.

Cheers,
David.

*The 2001 Z-H Rangen popped at the last of these Riesling events was in good condition, but a 1998 popped a few weeks earlier was totally oxidised. DO we worry about the ageing profile of Z-H Rangen Riesling?

2

Really fun to experience palpable excitement in a note… these are the moments we live for, I think, and I appreciate when others share their epiphanies. Thanks, David, for posting.

3

I always thought minging was a euphemism for bad or disgusting.

4

Thank you, Steve.

I couldn’t agree more about the value of excitement in a note. When a wine has clearly moved its tasters an enthusiastic and well-written note can bring some of those thrills to all who read it. Admittedly, not the same as being there and tasting it, but so much more compelling than the dry, soul-less note style epitomised by Clive Coates. I can tell by a lot of the notes I read on Wine Berserkers that most contributors are deeply passionate about what they drink and in many notes I can feel their thrill of tasting an exhilarating wine. Yeah, that’s what I like. [welldone.gif]

Cheers,
David.

5

Hello Jim,

Yes, usually here in Blighty it would be taken to mean excessively ugly; but words are our servants not our masters, we use them as we choose. I was using this construction in the same sense as one might say ‘terribly good’ or ‘frightfully charming’. I actually wanted to use the subject “Two more slap my bitch up fantastic Alsace Rieslings of mind-detonating class” but the partner said that was just too silly. I quite like ‘silly’.

Cheers,
David.

6

Very fine indeed.

7

Never tried the Boxler, and I’m a big fan of Weinbach (2002 Schlossberg Clos Ste Catherine being a personal favorite) but the prices tend to wow me as well, unfortunately.

8

I agree.