First Scheurebe I’ve had… quite an interesting experience. The nose really broke out of the bottle with sweet floral scents, as well as gooseberry and cat’s pee. I understand that this is apparently a hybrid of riesling and sylvaner, but on flavor alone I would have thought its parents were some slightly tropical offspring of sauvignon blanc and gewurztraminer. Lots of ripe grapefruit and viscous peaches. Still, I didn’t find this cloying, though it might be a bit overwhelming for some. It’d be interesting to see if this could age.
You need to have that same bottling from a higher acid vintage like '07 or '04 or '08. These sizzle with high-acid as the varietal can tend to get lowish in acidity in the already warm Pfalz. But you have picked the finest source in the Pfalaz for Scheuerbe. 2008 is supposed to be a great Schue vintage according to Terry Thiese.
Also try the TBA. It is cheap for TBA and a totally insane experience.
Jim, if your scheurebe fuse has been lit by the Pfeffingen, I would also suggest you try the Haardter Mandelring from Müller-Catoir, another first-tier Pfalz producer of this distinctive variety. Certainly not cheap, but worth the splurge.
Thanks for the tips. It’s not something I’d drink regularly, but it seems like an interesting grape to have on occasion to mix things up a bit (like the occasional bottle of Romorantin from Cazin). I’ll have to search out some of the bottlings you mention.
is this the spatlese or the auslese
the 2001 auslese was a killer plus wine
maybe epic minus
that was the 2001 I bought from you in 2004 or so, right Fass?
My bad, I left out the pradikat… Spatlese.
I’ve never had Scheurebe but did order some from Crush earlier this year. Delivery in the fall. Might be interesting.
The 2001 Haardter Burgergarten Spatlese was one of the most profound wines I have ever tasted.
[Or was it the Mandelring? I can’t remember, but whatever it was, it was a Scheurebe Spatlese, and it was to-die-for.]
It was the Auslese. Nervous wine.