2012 Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg - France, Alsace, Alsace Grand Cru (3/4/2024)
Light honey gold color, touch of sweet petrol on the nose, with some attractive spice notes; lightly sweet, nicely mature fruit on the palate, though still very young and fresh tasting, medium acidity, and some of the spices foreshadowed on the nose, almost a sense of gewurztraminer, finishes long with some richness coming through and a touch of steely minerality to balance the sugars. Lovely wine, Weinbach’s driest to my knowledge, though obviously not completely dry. Might be my last bottle of several bought on release, wish I had another case to follow for a decade or two more. (92 points)
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Pretty much can’t go wrong w/ Weinbach. Not surprised that it’s this good.
Tom
Thanks for the note. Rare to read Weinbach notes here. I still have a stash of mid 2000s Theos, Catherine’s and Inedits. Need to crack some with spicy Thai.
I like the wines, but they are definitely made in a more sweet style than many other Alsace producers. I used to buy a few of the others, but found they don’t necessarily age that well. I think this batch of 2012 bottles was my last significant purchase, mainly because the wine was the driest of the lineup that year.
They have also become very hard to find.
Can’t really agree. Checking out some of my old notes:
Schlossberg
2013 - 4 g/l
2016 - 4 g/l
2019 - 3.7 g/l
2020 - 1.5 g/l
Cuvée Theo
2015 - 5 g/l
When today many producers are making off-dry Rieslings (ie. near or above 10 g/l RS), the style of Weinbach has remained pretty much unchanged. Apart from their Cuvée Catherine, which can show a bit more RS, the overall style has remained pretty much old-school, ie. fermenting the wine close to full dryness. The classic Alsatian style of dry Riesling is around 2-5 g/l RS, so Weinbach is and has been firmly in the dry end of the spectrum.
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IIRC by way of comparison, the 2016 Trimbach CFE (from a producer “known” for drier wines) has 1.8 g/l of RS, so essentially the same as the 2020 Weinbach.
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I can only say I used to taste through the lineup pretty much every year, until maybe the 2015 vintage, and the wines were all over the map in most years. None would be what I would consider absolutely dry, and some (particularly L’Inedit) would, have noticeable RS. They were really good wines, but in comparison to, say Austria, or Trimbach, they definitely tend toward the richer, more lush side. That’s my own opinion and direct experience. I had some 2004 L’Inedit, and it hasn’t held up well at all, unfortunately, despite being electrically delicious in its youth. When we visited there in 2017, the difference in style from Trimbach was very clear.
At just a few grams, they are as dry as any Alsatian dry Riesling. With recent, warmer vintages the levels of acidity have not been as high as before, which might give an impression of sweetness, but the wines are still very dry. Only Catherine might show a bit more RS.
And it’s weird to base one’s impression of dryness on l’Inedit (itself a special bottling of Catherine), which is the cuvée made from overripe, often botrytized grapes. It is supposed to always have RS - only the level of RS would vary depending on the vintage.
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One of my bucket list items is to post a tasting note and have @Otto_Forsberg agree with it… 
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Just agree, or agree with zero clarifications?