Not a lot of dry Riesling in the cellar, but today needed something on the dry side for toast skagen. A good, serious Riesling here, but perhaps a but too serious of its own good. That is to say that there is really no playfulness to this, it’s all business.
2015 Reichsrat Von Buhl Forster Ungeheuer Riesling Großes Gewächs - Germany, Pfalz (11.6.2026)
Relatively dark color with an amber hue. The nose likewise is appropriate for the age, with prominent developed fruit notes of tangerine, peach and dates. Has a sort of canned fruit character to it, but not in a negative way. I’m not getting any actual petrol but there is an implication that some would emerge with additional cellaring. On the palate it is quite rich, a bit fat even, with lush fruit and high acidity. The fruit character is akin to the nose, but there is quite a bit of youthful, citrusy verve to it. It’s in a bit challenging phase currently to be evaluated any more than for what it is giving right now. I’m veering towards thinking it will not get actually better from here but as the vibrant acidity is there I’m not fully confident with my take. It’s more powerful and hefty than I prefer but it is undoubtedly a wine of high quality and drinks really well. Regardless of where it goes from here, I’m happy with the purchase and how it performs currently.
Speaking of aging, some of the notes in @IlkkaL 's description (dark color…canned fruit) made me suspicious on that front as well. But I don’t know what exactly he tasted in the bottle.
I consume and have always consumed so little GG Riesling that tbh I don’t know what one should exactly expect from such wine at this age. The palate was certainly not tired at all but at the same time I have to think that the fruit expression has developed quite a lot from what it’s been like in the early years of the wine.
I don’t know that it’s anything unique to GG Riesling. I think you would expect most quality white wines to still be alive and well at 10 years old. But for me, canned fruit flavors are pretty much always a bad sign, even if the wine is young. And when combined with dark color, it sounds like the wine is not in a good place and probably not getting better (unless it’s just a damaged bottle).
I reckon the provenance was solid, it had been in my temp controlled offsite cellar pretty much since release and I think was bought from a German retailer. The color was darker than expected but not dark dark.
