Not particular complex, but what a wonderful feinherb. Tastes as if filtered through a hundred layers of slate and steel. Muted herbs and fruit just beginning to poke through, but held at bay by the vintage’s notable acidity. Fabulous and only 9% to boot! LOVE this. 
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Only German Riesling in my cellar.
- 2015 S.A. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Großes Gewächs - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (12/22/2024)
Nose of kerosene with a whiff of pineapple. Lots of stone fruit up front, peaches, apricots, creamy, mouth-puckering acidity. Sweet pineapple and tangy citrus with some pithy citrus bitterness late. I’m just not a petrol guy and the nose detracts from the experience. Overall I like the wine but give me Alsace all day.
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Yuki is a Chihuahua/Jack Russel rescue mutt on Cocaine. Yuki belongs to my grandson but she loves to come to my house because I give her meat and bones.
2018 Peter Lauer Ayler Kupp Riesling Faß 18 Großes Gewächs - I liked this wine, but, to me, it was more austere than most Mosel Rieslings. Citrus driven with an orange peel backbone. I did not get floral components. I opened this because my son liked Riesling but I thought he would not like this one because of the lack of sweetness. However, he disagreed with me and said he got a broader fruit palate with sweet fruit that I did not taste. Go figure?
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Description confirmed via image.
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Serious miscalculation tonight, as we had two Gewurztraminers and a Grauburgunder Eiswein but no Riesling.
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2000 Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Riesling Kabinett
Not quite 25 years, but we were having friends over for oysters and cheese, and this fit the bill. Delicious, and delicious enough (especially with the oysters) that it was gone before I had much for notes. Orange blossoms but with a serious mineral and lime leaf streak. June-bug is the enforcer in the family. Usually she trusts me to make good decisions, but was definitely questioning why I was setting her up with an empty bottle.
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That sounds incredible.
Interesting. Our local shop had these on offer a year ago and the couple I tried were duds/past prime.
Wine Spectator has a concise and spot-on definition of the term “feinherb” in its glossary.
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That is a simple and correct definition. What it does not take into account is that a wine with 9 grams of RS and low acidity can taste sweeter than a wine with 12 grams of RS and very high acidity. Of course there are lots of other factors in terms of the type of ripeness, vine age, terrior etc. But that is what makes German riesling so interesting!
Hmm… Marcus picked it up about 6 years ago as a late release from the winery, and this bottle at least showed no signs of tiring.
That’s true. I just thought this was a concise definition. My site takes an in-depth look at the term. Stephan Bauer contributed an article on Mosel Riesling feinherb in 2015. It’s a little outdated.
My hunch was these were from a few cases the distributor didn’t know it had. Both the main fine wine shops near me offered it around the same time.
2022 Stein Palmberg Riesling Spätlese trocken “Alte Reben” - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (12/19/2024)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over 2 to 3 hrs. –
– AP #: … 10 23 –
NOSE: light petrol; freshly baked baguette; slightly sugar-y Playdoh; light-but-distinct note of toasted cumin seeds.
BODY: medium-light pale yellow color; medium-light bodied.
TASTE: high acidity, very dry, but with a fruity glycerin aspect; tart, “white fruits” — green grapes, gooseberry; tons of stuffing — in a way, kind of difficult to drink now; 12% alc. is hidden; light Sweet Tarts note, and a bit salinic, too. Drink or Hold – I think best to Hold right now – I see significant upside. Excellent!
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No pets currently but I love the cause. I had some Austrian Riesling here at home but I raided the offsite for some German’s that were in my drinking window.
Shame about the WS. Looks like some other notes on CT also express issues with how these were sealed.
- 2004 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Auslese #14 - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (12/20/2024)
My 375mL is part of subset that has seal issues. That is, I'm seeing what some others have noted. The cork showed a good deal of ingress. Even all the way up to the top on one side. Not much on top but clearly there was some amount of breach. And the wine shows as such with plenty of copper color and notes of more advanced maturity. Certainly not gone but clearly there is advancement here that is beyond the normal aging curve of such a wine. Honeyed apples and wet autumn leaves. Tart apples on the palate laced with touches of still unresolved sugar. Those mature notes are here too, being distracting if not completely overpowering. Tis a shame. Torn between liking what is still here and wondering about how it would show without the advancement.
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- 2006 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (12/22/2024)
Richly colored with the slightest shade of copper. Which had me a bit worried because the cork showed a lot of ingress all the way up. There is maturity here but its not advanced. Nose of ripe cut apple with hints of pineapple and watermelon. Sappy palate where the sugar is not completely integrated yet. Acidity is definitely low making it feel like fruit nectar. The fruit is sunshiney though with a fresh golden apple quality. The range of expression and structures leads me to believe this ripened unevenly but I'm certainly no vineyard manager. Tasty nonetheless and yet to complete maturity.
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Interesting note on the Selbach. Given the nature of the 2006 vintage I would suspect it’s a mixture of both botrytis affected and some clean grapes leading to that unevenness that you mention. It’s only 18 years old. That’s barely into early adulthood! 
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Right. I remember talking to them at a trade tasting a long time ago where they mentioned declassifying trockenbeerauslese down to spatlese I believe. Or something similar. It was eye opening for me to learn that things like that happened but very informative to understand that botrytis could get into something like spatlese.
I don’t remember if it was about '06 though. I do remember the talk about '06 was that below auslese it was not considered a good year but that above could be wines that will be great after a few decades. I don’t think this one is in that class but I would advise on waiting longer.
While I didn’t notice anything that made me think of botrytis I do wonder if they heavy color is an indication of it.
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2006 was a botrytis year at almost all levels. I have a number of bottles of 2006 Spätlese from various producers that could have been sold as Beerenauslese. I even have a few bottles of Kabinett that were “declassified” Beerenauslese.
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is one of those the Meulenhof Treppchen Kabinett one-star?
Terms of this charity series have been updated, see the OP.
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