Damaged, which was incredibly disappointing.
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Ooof, bummer
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did you happen to get this from winebid?
Yeah what MIke said. A bummer. My last HGS wine. Numerous great wines the past few years. This one was an auction buy and maybe heat-damaged before getting to me.
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I got it from…checks CT…WineBid…is there a trend that lead you to ask?. I’ve bought a bunch of wine from WB and don’t really ever have issues, so I have no axe grind.
Next time we do a riesling thing, I can bring a bottle of the #2133.
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Have not had any bad bottles yet, and I have a spat and two iceweins left. Hoping for good things!
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I’ve had decent luck too, but did recently have a flawed 2001 MC that I bought off winebid.
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Blockquote
Haven’t had 15 or 17, but love both 19 and 21 - better than 20 at least for near term drinking. The 19 is super precise, bristling with energy, and the 21 is crystalline and ethereal, but with a truckload of dry extract. The 21 is one of my favorite young kabi’s ever. I had a bottle of the 2020 when it first came out 3 years ago, with the same result… monolithic on day 1, but showing its secrets over several days. > Blockquote
Thank you, Vince for contrasting those vintages.
My follow-up question (both for you and anyone else with experience) is related to projections on aging for any of these vintages. I’m asking in part because you thought 19 and 21 might be better “at least for near term drinking”, thus seemingly leaving the door open for some kind of evolution of the 2020 into something more and/or more enjoyable later (obviously without any guarantees).
I of course understand that all wine evolves over time, but that evolution doesn’t necessarily mean improvement. I have experience now over the last 10-12 years or so of seeing how various wines can (or cannot, or may not) evolve for better or worse, but I think I’m better at such predictions of evolution for, say domestic USA reds than for German Riesling and Pradikatswein in particular. I’ve observed that the acidity in Riesling can seemingly decrease relatively speaking and/or come into better overall balance. I appreciate that, but because I really enjoy Riesling on the higher end of the spectrum for acidity, I also see it as a trade-off vs. the allure of oodles of fresh energy. Again, this can be an evolution, not necessarily an improvement-- and it could be viewed as either improvement or decline based on one’s individual preferences.
I know from experience in red wine that certain vintages need more time than others to come into their own and achieve their potential, but I haven’t yet figured that out for Pradikatswein.
All of this is a long setup to ask:
- What is it about that 2020 wine that leads you believe it may yet improve?
- In what ways (complexity, balance, energy, etc.) do you think the 2020 might improve?
- Do you think the 2020’s mode of improvement might differ and/or exceed that of 2019 vs. 2021? I would assume that 2019 and 2021 may not yet be at their pinnacle but could yet change and evolve in a way that you might enjoy even more. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) But something in the way you wrote your note seemed to leave the door open for 2020 improving MORE than 2019 or 2021 from their current showing.
Thank you all so much for helping me with your own observations.
There’s a lot to unpack; others with more experience could speak better to the question of how these will age and whether 2020 will be the better wine in the long term. My hunch is 21 and 19 will still be better in the long term, as they both have incredible balance (in different ways) and were wow wines from the get go, but it’s just conjecture. I am not sure there are many vintages like 2020 (or other recent warm years) in German history - both climate change, and winemaking/growing to adapt to climate change.
My brief answer is that the 2020 shows a lot of baby fat, a somewhat simple, monolithic set of sweet fruit flavors, but with sufficient acidity/structure to carry it through… and by day 5 it had more delineated layers of fruit, mineral and that “rainwater” feel/taste that the best Mosel wines have, even if it lost some of the chiseled structure that held it so nicely together on day 1. I think several years on its side will help it shed the baby fat and reveal the layers.
2021 reminds me of 2002, but has more dry extract and is a more “complete” wine. 19 is just very19. It reminds me of many other 19s I’ve had across the range - a combo of zippy acidity and a tensile feel.
Nope. Gotta be the 2134
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I have two bottles still. Not acquired at auction, but purchased from the late great John Trombley in the spring of 2004.
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Keep drinking and eventually you’ll figure out your own tastes on this. Remember, everyone has their own version of when something is at its ‘pinnacle’.
Loved John, but he sold me two cases of wine, and every single bottle was heat damaged.
I only bought just released stuff from him. No problems
Will be doing a big Spatlese tasting at today’s rieslingstudy!
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Great note. Used to love Schloss Eltz esp. the 1971s. Have not seen one in decades.
IIRC, Schloss Eltz ceased to be as an operating winery sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s.
76 was the last vintage. The family business imploded and went bankrupt in 79. Eva Fricke has recently replanted some of their vineyards.
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We will also be studying the natural side of riesling!
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