TN: 2009 Willi Schaefer Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese

WINE TALK
1

2009 Willi Schaefer Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese -

Incredible viscosity. Luminous energy. Explosive. Ethereal. Spiritual. Mandarin orange flavored happiness.

2

Wow. That is some tasting note. Haha - we just popped a bottle each of the GD Spat and Kabinett and recorked them for a dinner on Monday. You got my expectations sky high with that note.

3

This is nice to hear after a recent run of bad 2005 Willi Schaefer Späts

4

By bad do you mean stylistically not your thing or do you mean flawed? Ive only had the Graacher Himmelreich from that vintage and for my tastes its been consistently great over about 6 bottles or so.

5

I hope I didnt give you unrealistic expectations, but I loved it

6

Yeah by bad I mean flawed with ethyl acetate.

7

Thats VA right? Thankfully I have not encountered that in the 05 GH.

8

That is highly unusual in German Riesling. In fact over thousands of bottles I have never encountered it.

9

Hello Berry,

That picture and note capture the essence of Willi Schaefer’s luminescent wines, the 2009s are particularly coruscating. Thanks for sharing.

I have to admit I didn’t know he had any Wehlener Sonnenuhr. I was there last summer and didn’t taste or see any on tariffs or the like, and I don’t recall seeing one on merchant’s lists. Nice to know there are still more treats in store for me to experience, it is true to say: “The limits of pleasure are yet to be defined or reached!”

Cheers,
David.

10

I was just as shocked…but one of the bottles was opened at a dinner with about 7 people and everyone at the table agreed and it was at such an intolerable level that the bottle was discarded.

11

You caused me to doubt myself so I double checked. It was indeed the Sundial vineyard.

Cheers,
Berry

12

Eric,

I would strongly suspect that the particlar bottle or bottles were somehow damaged (perhaps even at bottling if not later). Will Schaefer makes some of the purest wines in the world.

13

AP # ?

14

I should have noted it but I didn’t.

15

Schaefer only does one bottling of Sonnenuhr Spatlese (sometimes he doesn’t even do that many), so AP is irrelevant.