2017 Nigl Senftenberger Piri. Light golden slate color. Nose waxy, floral with orange blossom. Palate initially rich bodied, waves of fruity flavor – primarily bright citrus, flavors evocative of a flower garden; as my palate adjusted, it became wonderfully pure and crystalline, like ethereal grapefruit juice without any hint of bitterness. Really nice mix of weight and grace. 92 pts
–sourced from fellow berserker Martin Steinley. was confused as the previous years’ labels had “senftenberger” listed prominently but it looks like Nigl has opted for a more minimalistic look recently. I really enjoyed this and just hope it and its vintage brethren can age as well as David’s older Nigl example.
2016 Emrich-Schönleber Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Großes Gewächs. light golden slate color. Nose honey beeswax, a gingery spicy citrus pith note, floral. Palate intense fruit depth but dry, pronounced apricot flavor, good weight, strong minerality. Still a baby and a bit too intense to drink at this stage but has a lot of depth to unpack over the coming years. 93 pts
–ordered from the Winehouse here in LA after a recommendation from Maria there, after I and a friend had asked about Keller there. Don’t know how it would compare to Keller tasted blind, but it was very satisfying, would love to see how this develops over the next 5-10 years.
2016 Ovum Base Line. Bradley vineyard.
Straw golden color. Nose lightly waxy, golden fruit with notes of wild honey. Palate good richness, lychee and peach, some tart acidity, a bit of saccharine/almost chemical sweetness note. A bit simple and the almost chemical sweetness note was off putting but overall an interesting and food friendly wine. 89 pts
–sourced from Bar and Garden in Culver City, CA. Disclaimer: we heard about it through one of our friends in our tasting group who works there, Ned M., the SO of fellow berserker Grace P. a very interesting small shop with a very focused and curated selection, worth a visit for anyone in the area.
2014 Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spätlese- Germany, Nahe (12/5/2018)
Very nice wine. Not as sweet as I expected. Drank it with a Donnhoff GG and the relative sweetness of the two was closer than I would expect. I think this had a bit more acidity than the Donnhoff to balance the sweetness, but the fruit component was more apple and pear than citrus, although there was a bit of pineapple. Smooth and balanced. No petrol. I am not a petrol fan so that’s good. Easy to drink. The nose was a bit tighter than I expected, but maybe that was due to the crappy glasses I was drinking out of, although there was a floral component. (92 pts.)
Pobega’ed a half bottle that was delivered today- 1 of 8 courtesy of First Bottle Wines. Definitely one of the best deals I’ve ever enjoyed. Onto the wine:
Straight out of the bottle, this needs a good 15-20 minutes to settle in and put on some weight. I’ve had some closed 2015 german wines, but this opens up nicely after about 30+ minutes. On the nose, there’s delicious stone fruit and ripe apple flavors that I’ve found in many wines in this vintage, wonderful florality (i want to say white flowers, even though that seems almost meaningless), and a hint of wet stone that might just be my imagination. On the palate, it feels like a proper auslese and I don’t detect botrytis. Great acidity that really straddles that line brilliantly so as to not be harsh or sharp.
Obviously this is a wine to hold. That said, half bottles, especially riesling ones, are rather annoying to stack in a Eurocave. I suspect these won’t last as long as they should.
Wrapping it up with a nearly dry Alsatian Riesling. I only had a small glass, as I was too tired to really appreciate it, but the lime zest and white peach, along with pretty floral tones have me looking forward to more tomorrow night.
1998 Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein- Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal (12/12/2018)
Honeyed apricots with a twist of honeysuckle and a dash of slate, rich but with a tangy finish, still on the young side, another example of the nearly immortal 1998 Austrians. (92 pts.)
And a shot of my own rescue furkid, Samuel, who appreciates the theme:
Great! Thanks Mike. Samuel appears to have a bit of cattitude!
So it adds up to $180* ($360 with company match!) if I am not off with my math. We also had some folks who made donations on the side, and I (and Dakin) greatly appreciate that!
