Yes, but that term is rarely heard in the US.
(I first learned it when a high school friend proposed furlongs per fortnight as a measure of speed.)
The use of fortnight and Boxing Day used to draw complete blanks from my US colleagues.
and for the French, two weeks is quinze jours–15 days!
OK, I thought you would catch on. For the Schaefer, you said it had “white beach”. I assumed you meant white peach… But with the salinity and graphite thread, I thought this was a pretty funny. Not a true juxtaposition, but none the less it was pretty funny. Heck, unless you were trying to describe a salinity perception (I might have to use this one day). Then Markus asked, “where is the salinity?”
FWIW- on a recent trip I brought some 2015s to tastings where it was not possible to air the wines in advance. At one dinner I opened all of the 2015 Willi Schaefer Spatlesen except for the auction wine, and others brought Schloss-Lieser and von Schubert. A couple of days later I opened 2015 Haag BJS Spatlese at lunch in Chinatown.
In all cases we popped and poured and only had 2 hours with the wines. All showed tremendous promise and were strongly on the uptick in terms of showing their stuff as the bottles ran out, but I have been dabbling in Riesling long enough to know we missed out big-time. The wines were not shut down- but rather needed quite a lot of airing to show their best.
I have a few more 2015s to try young and my firm rule going forward is 6+ hours of air first. With any good young German wine I think 4-6 hours can be helpful, but the 2015s seem to demand it. I am not sure I have had another vintage where this was so strongly the case- maybe 2008, but even then for entirely different reasons.
Hows about bimonthly?
Good point. The '15 Kabinetts we tasted in my group were decanted into pouring bottles 45 minutes or so ahead of the tasting, and we were able to repour for an hour or more after we began. I’m sure that helped the wines.
Kerfuffle was another word that was pretty much unknown in the US a few decades ago. A Canadian friend who was living in the States in the early 80s used to try it out whenever she was in a group, and no one except those of us who had lived in Canada knew it.
I was amused when Trump’s tweet of “covfefe” drew a complete blank. My first thought was that he meant kerfuffle. And his mother was Scottish, so perhaps he had heard the word from her. You hear the word occasionally in the US now.
You wrote a perferct note for a young Wehlener Sonnenuhr. It is extremely closed vineyard (in its youth) and takes at least 5/10 years to unfold for Kabinett and 15/20 more for Auslese. I am sure you are very familiar with Prum both young and old.
However an Auslese even from Schaefer will have at least 110gr/lt RS. In a vintage like 2015 this is certainly more like 150/160gr/lt. It is surprising to mistake this for a Kabinett. However in a casual tasting when you get hung up on a closed wine you may not focus on the sweet side of things. Also I am not sure how your group thought this could be an australian riesling: nothing in your note (including the residual sugar bit pinned down as Kabinett) screams Australia!
And Kabinets do what Kabinetts do they show great fruit when they are young because they are meant to be drunk young!
Sorry if this comes across a bit harsh but you are a much better taster!!!
I don’t think you can generalize about the vineyard that way. Yes, Prum’s WS sometimes are very shut down early on, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true of other producers’ renditions (Schaefer and Richter come to mind). And in recent years, I’ve tasted a number of young Prums that showed good fruit. That was true of the '15 Prum WS we tasted in April (notes here).
This wasn’t a case where we were distracted and didn’t notice the sweetness. If you had been there, I think you’d have been shocked to find it was an Auslese.
As I explained above, the wine was very pale, almost clear, which I think is likely the result of sulfuring. And I suspect that’s also why the wine was shut down right now.
My Australian speculation (and it was just that) was offered because:
(a) The person who served it often brings wines that have been recommended recently by Eric Asimov in the NY Times, and Asimov had written a column the previous week about Australian rieslings.
(b) The wine tasted like a riesling, but didn’t taste like a typical German riesling. I’ve had a few quite good Aussie rieslings, and I don’t think this was a crazy guess. I’ve drunk a lot of German riesling (and Mosels in particular) over a long time, and this just didn’t fit the typical flavor profile.
Yes, but Ausleses can also be very fruity and delicious young, too.
Couldn’t disagree more, at least from top quality producers. Some of my favorite wines in the last 5 years have been 25-45 year old Kabinetts from Prum and Egon Muller.
Good point, Jay. I’m enjoying 01 and 02 Kabinetts and QBAs now.
In my experience Mosel producers love nothing more than serving old Kabinett to their best clients. By old I mean back to the 70s and beyond. Not just Kabs also QBa.
Pointing to Schaefer and WS as example is not really ideal. He has been making the wines for the first time last two years. WS is generally v backwards. Chez Prum year in and year out WS and GH shown side by side make this point very clear (Chez Schaefer is the same with GD vs GH and in the last two years GH vs WS+GD. You just need to taste them side by side(. Moreover, Prum’s style changed somewhat over the last few years and in combination with peculiar vintages made the wines kind of accessible. I am referring to '12 (ripe and dense), '13 and '14 when Prum showed their wines in London in June (something that never happened before). However '15 and '16 were much backwards (with the '16 not shown yet).
Wines from producers with a more generous style like Molitor (not a great parcel), Wegeler or Loosen show WS characxter slightly earlier but if you pick Selback Oster or Weins Prum (who recently retired) you are back in the camp of Prum with reticent wines in their your (the most recent wines of Lieser from the WS are in this style as well). I did not drink enough Kerpen WS to comment on it.
Yes, but Ausleses can also be very fruity and delicious young, too.[/quote]
Now it is v clear thanks for the explanation.
I hear all you guys re ageing Kabinett but I get more excited by the nuances of aged Spatlese and Auslese. They just take much longer to come around…
Schaefer has been making wine from the Sonnenhur for a long time no? Just not the Auslese which comes from a newly planted parcel.
Correct my mistake. However the quantities are tiny.
Kabinett 1998-2008
Spatlese 1997/03/05-07/09-11
Auslese 1995/2015
- = from and including to and including
/ = and
I’m not sure I understand. I own some 2008 Schaefer Wehlener Sonnenuhr and they’ve been bottling from WS for at least 20 years, according to CellarTracker.
Because of the bridge they rearranged…
Sorry for the absence of rhubarb, graphite or nose hairs but this is the best picture I could find to accompany John’s post:
