2007 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Alte Reben- Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal (10/10/2009)
Piercing, hammering, mineral acidity is what this young wine is all about right now. There is a decent dose of green apple-tinged fruit, but the mineral and acidity dominate the palate so much it’s hard to get a bead on the fruit. I have loved this wine in older vintages like 01, 02, 05, but 07 is quite unyielding in its youth. I have a couple more that will be put away for at least 6-8 years, when the wine will hopefully blossom, and the score skyrocket (89 pts.)
not that long—drank an 04er Hirtzberger Hochrain Smaragd yesterday that was perfectly mature. I think that Niederösterreicher Rieslings are ready to go sooner than one might think.
James, I iwould probably agree with you, except this wine is SO tight right now, relative to how it’s been in previous vintages. Just drank an 02 Nigl Privat that was fabulous, and a recent 01 Jamek Klaus Smaragd was also superb. I don’t think these wines last decades, but 8-10 years is not out of the question at all.
Cheers
Interesting. I really like the GVs from Gobelsburg and they certainly show plenty of everything including richness and fruit. Haven’t gotten around to trying the rieslings, mostly because I’ve had a bad run of alcoholic dry austrian rieslings.
Stephen Bitterolf at Crush fed me a 01 Klaus Riesling Smaragd from Toni Bodenstein at Prager blind the other night, and I thought it was a Graves.
woops! but it was mature and simple. That’s not what I expect from Prager in this century… had it been damaged?
Roland Velich fed me a 97 Loibenberg Smaragd from Knoll couple weeks ago in Austria that I though was a magnifcent Graves…—but that was a GV, and looking forward, whereas many Austrian rieslings at this age are reflecting upon better days.
James, not sure how an Austrian riesling would ever become “graves-like”, so I don’t know what to say. I probably drink 8-10 bottles/year of Austrian, and can’t really remember having a bad one, in fact they’re generally excellent. But then every bottle is unique, particularly with some age. Tonight had an 04 Diel Burgberg GG that was outstanding.
(89 pts.)