I’ve ignored it, and the rest of the White Capsules, because they aren’t labeled Grosses Gewachs.
The first three unforced errors made the first 60% of the bottle rather perplexing. It had all the components of a fine dry riesling, but it was aggressively tart - akin to sucking on a raw lemon - and just didn’t come together coherently. Once I solved the equation, I was smitten. Amazingly silken on the palate with thrilling concentration and density, but somehow light and unobtrusive as well. The acidity didn’t really soften, it just folded into the wine and gave it amazing energy and precision without the surplus of lemony tartness that defined the first half of the bottle. This was packed with stony, flinty minerals and salt. Its finish lingers. This was ultimately a world class wine, which is not something I was expecting. A most pleasant surprise. I have wine tucked away in every nook and cranny of my apartment, but I need to go back and get a few more of these. It’s remarkable how much concentration can be packed into a wine with an ABV of 11%
My photography stinks. This a 2017 Markus Molitor Urziger Wurtzgarten Auslese **
No kidding, I logged on 15 minutes ago to start this thread. What are you, savant?
My motivation was to share my experience with a nice Austrian, 2021 Weingut Schneider Riesling Trocken, and I searched for a Riesling thread to no avail. Hard to believe.
So that’s a great beat to the punch, Scott!
I expect this thread to go long with contributions and deep with discussion.
Cheers, Bob
Great note, @scottkieser, and great thread idea. Molitor’s wines were my introduction to dry riesling: about 15 months ago, I picked up a bottle of the white capsule 2016 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese ** based only on an educated guess and was smitten. The dense but elegant slate and bone-dry tropical fruits instantly sold me. “If this is what dry riesling is,” I said to myself, “give me all you’ve got and more.”
Yup! The white capsules (like the one in the OP) are Molitor’s dry rieslings. The green capsule bottlings are off-dry, and the gold are sweet. The color coding of the capsules confused me at first.
Personally I don’t find anything particularly special about them. They’re good and adored within Germany (at least from my experience tasting there), but I don’t get the hype.
I often do this these days for very young bone dry Aussie rieslings and it does work a treat just bringing things into balance. Not always needed but agree some can be a bit awkward initially.
Tough battle tonight. Both in a perfect place, IMHO. Willi fruitier, fuller, hint of leather, more luscious. JJ more interesting – sand, oyster shell, paint, unripe melon, (seemingly) a tad drier, crisp.
JJ maybe by a hair, although I’m waffling and might have to call it a draw. Could go either way depending on mood.
Been drinking a lot of the BD Tupetz imports recently and they’ve all been excellent. Want to stock up on some Aussie stuff, but haven’t really had the funds for big wine buys. Polish Hill is now well over $50…
What I really liked about the Molitor bottling that was my gateway dry riesling was the quiet yet intense purity it had. The acidity wasn’t bracing and it didn’t have the power or spiciness of some Clemens-Busch rieslings (to take one example), but I thought the balance and poise were terrific. I’m happy to recommend these. The two-star bottlings are serious rieslings but aren’t terribly pricey–I’ve seen them for around $40-$55–so you could give one a shot without feeling like you’re really taking a gamble.
Ulli produced one in the 13s or higher! I once asked him to pour me some of the craziest wines in his cellar. And he pulled out a partly skin macerated, auslese level feinherb aged in barrel for several years with no sulpher! If there ever was a wine version of free jazz this wine was it!
