I don’t have words to convey the sense of sheer purity, lightness, or elegance in this wine. It has that classic Würzgarten lime and strawberry fruit, vivid floral, slatey and stony accents, and the start of more savoury creamy and smoky notes on the nose. There’s gentle sweetness (less than most modern Spätlese) on the palate, but remarkable intensity and persistence of flavour on a remarkably light, almost weightless frame.
The balance, focus, and sense of refreshment here are absolutely incredible, and this is one of the very best Rieslings I’ve had in a while.
This is gonna make it a lot easier for me to keep my hands off the 2012 Merkelbachs.
Merkelbach wines in higher acid years are no-brainer back up the truck wines. They are so inexpensive in relation to theuir qualitative peers that it’s laughable. Except that the brothers are quite old, both are unmarried, and I don’t know that there’s anyone in line to take over after learning fom them…be warned, this source is not going to be with us for a whole lot longer.
Love Merkelbach, and I am an unabashed uber-fan of the 2001s. The kabinetts and spatlese are great in 2001, but its the UW Auslese that killed it in 2001. There are amongst my all-time favorite German Rieslings (with the overall nod going to older JJ Prum, but I get to drink those so rarely).
Salil, thank you for the beautiful description of Merkelbachs and their wines. I lucked into their wines from the middle- and late-90s as my introduction to Mosel Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese, and I have supported them ever since.
It seems that some day soon this winery will come to an end. I will celebrate them as long as I can, and hope I am wrong.
More evidence flows in that the 2001s are finally starting to come into their own.
The more time passes the more some old school estates finally get a modicum of recognition. The Merkelbachs will at least head towards retirement with some of what they are due.
Enjoying a wonderful bottle of the 01 Merkelbach UW Auslese #16 tonight. Overall, still showing primary and young, with layers of mouth coating fruit and dry extract. All the body and now-creamy richness is perfectly balanced by its seamless acids, no surprise given the vintage. The finish is beginning to tell it’s nearly 24 years with a touch of gingery bitterness, but overall this is wonderfully fresh and light colored still. I should have bought cases of this! 93-94 pts.
David, whenever I think I should have bought cases of any given 01 German Riesling (an occurrence as frequent as my drinking an 01), I always assume you did! @David_Bu3ker
Merkelbach 2001’s were so cheap I felt guilty not buying more. But the mania to try more new wines took over. Drank up all my Merkelbach, alas. I think I bought most of them at Astor.
If seemed like pretty much all 2001s very such great values circa 2002-2003 and even long after that on Winebid, but I definitely didn’t get enough Merkelbach (I did pretty well loading up on Leitz, Christoffel, JJ Prum and Selbach-Oster).
