TN: 1969 Beifenheimer Steinadfer - Riesling reine Auslese (Rheingau, Germany)
A pristine bottle, the last of three purchased together some time ago. The good quality cork came out cleanly in one piece. Bright amber gold. The nose is showing tropical fruit and is fresh. The mouthfeel is off dry and fresh, with dried apricots and a long effortless length. So enjoyable on its own and it pared well with the quality Chinese takeaway. No music required to heighten the sensory sensation on this occasion.
That’s “feine Auslese”. non? 1969 was before the '71 German wine laws, so “Auslese” doesn’t necessarily correspond to the pre-fermentation sweetness levels set by those laws. It was just a “descriptive” labelling prior to '71 - i.e. a sweeter wine “Selected from the harvest”. “Feine” added to indicate extra quality! I’ve never heard of this town or vineyard before! Can’t go wrong in the Rheingau though. Neat label too!
+1 for the beautiful label. Another +1 for the geography lesson on the upper label. ( what is that called anyway? A cowl because it wraps the shoulders? A stole?)
Paul, it was a most tasty bottle. I misspelt the vineyard name which should read “Geifenheimer.”
No, I think that is Geisenheimer, meaning that the vineyard belongs to the famous village of Geisenheim.
Geisenheimer Steinacker ! (old German letters)
However Pieroth was known for heavily using “Süßreserve” - unfermented sweet grape juice - to create sweet wines (coming from wherever) … and today nobody really knows what was really in the bottles.
In 1985 they were outed as the greatest users of “Glykol” (Diethylenglycol - C4H10O3) - a frost prohibitive used in car engines … or at least they blended (Austrian) sweet wines that had been elevated with Glykol to higher “Prädikatsweine” …
this was the Austrian(-German) wine scandal in 1985 that brought the total crisis to the Austrian wine-market, but eventually lead to the resurrection of the Austrian wine, when the younger generation concentrated only on quality … and not on quantity and sweetness anymore.
To the honour of Pieroth: they brought a lot of people to wine as a beverage with their direct marketing policy in the 60ies/70ies … and I myself have tasted several old Pieroth bottles (back to the 30ies, 40ies) that were really good or better - without having any idea what´s really included …
(Glykol is not dangerous for health (if not consumed in large quantities), it´s a certain kind of an alcohol and tastes sweet, however it is/was not allowed in wine).
A 1969 may not contain any Glykol, but most certainly Süßreserve … (but that was a quite common practice … and still is)
Gerhard,
Thank you for the information/history. Would a wine made with unfermented grape juice be able to age successfully and taste well after several decades?
Yes, many taste well. I´ve had quite a lot of Piroths …