Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
Doennhoff Niederhaeuser Hermannshoehle Spaetlese trocken 1999
Youthful straw color, aromas past petrol to a kind of refined brown sugar, model glue sort of thing. Medium-bodied, smooth, well-integrated. With maturish Riesling, I have the hardest time finding flavor descriptors, it seems to be all about sensation: texture, balance, and integration. This is very clear and smooth, all of a piece, but with more weight/body (12% abv) than, say, a MSR with residual sugar.
Fine food wine with turbot, asparagus and baked potato.
J.J. Christoffel Uerziger Wuerzgarten Auslese* 1998
Straw-colored, fine aromas of sea-breeze, with a suspicion of citrus and glucose. Once again, hard to pin down flavors, but enjoyed the wine's very fine feeling, as if of snow melt running over rocks, with a touch of honey. Wonderfully light but a tad short on the finish.
Excellent as an aperitif with Stilton, and at the end of the meal with a pastry-based desert. Based on this bottle, I would drink these soon; but this bottle had what looked like some dried fruit sugar trapped between the cork and capsule and so was probably a leaker.
2003 J.J. Christoffel Uerziger Wuerzgarten Kabinett
Dark straw, aromas of burnt sugar, caramel, apple pie; decent balance, tho not typical for a MSR Kabinett, with a kind of broad, flat mid-palate, but still cleansing acidity. Apple pie, cinnamon, some sugar, though not obnoxious; well further along in its integration than, say, the 2002, and lacking the 2002's steely backbone.
This wine gets a lot of bad press in, say, Cellartracker, but we've had two bottles recently and it's not at all bad, just out of the mold for its type. It's closer to Spaetlese in body. It definitely lacks the lightness of touch that characterized the 98 Auslese above.
Joguet les Petites Roches 2005
Opened the night before, decanted about two hours before drinking. Deep dark red, aromas of cherry offset slightly by bell peppers, flavors following the nose, with chunky tannin.
The massy tannins step on this wine's charm as a sipper, but it was terrific with food (hipster pizza: roasted tomatoes, mixed cheeses, shallots, garlic and onion, on sourdough focacia). This is a hell of a lot of wine for about $15.40 (case discount). I tasted at the store from a bottle that had been open several days and it was downright creamy, so I suppose this wine has a bright future ahead of it.
Youthful straw color, aromas past petrol to a kind of refined brown sugar, model glue sort of thing. Medium-bodied, smooth, well-integrated. With maturish Riesling, I have the hardest time finding flavor descriptors, it seems to be all about sensation: texture, balance, and integration. This is very clear and smooth, all of a piece, but with more weight/body (12% abv) than, say, a MSR with residual sugar.
Fine food wine with turbot, asparagus and baked potato.
J.J. Christoffel Uerziger Wuerzgarten Auslese* 1998
Straw-colored, fine aromas of sea-breeze, with a suspicion of citrus and glucose. Once again, hard to pin down flavors, but enjoyed the wine's very fine feeling, as if of snow melt running over rocks, with a touch of honey. Wonderfully light but a tad short on the finish.
Excellent as an aperitif with Stilton, and at the end of the meal with a pastry-based desert. Based on this bottle, I would drink these soon; but this bottle had what looked like some dried fruit sugar trapped between the cork and capsule and so was probably a leaker.
2003 J.J. Christoffel Uerziger Wuerzgarten Kabinett
Dark straw, aromas of burnt sugar, caramel, apple pie; decent balance, tho not typical for a MSR Kabinett, with a kind of broad, flat mid-palate, but still cleansing acidity. Apple pie, cinnamon, some sugar, though not obnoxious; well further along in its integration than, say, the 2002, and lacking the 2002's steely backbone.
This wine gets a lot of bad press in, say, Cellartracker, but we've had two bottles recently and it's not at all bad, just out of the mold for its type. It's closer to Spaetlese in body. It definitely lacks the lightness of touch that characterized the 98 Auslese above.
Joguet les Petites Roches 2005
Opened the night before, decanted about two hours before drinking. Deep dark red, aromas of cherry offset slightly by bell peppers, flavors following the nose, with chunky tannin.
The massy tannins step on this wine's charm as a sipper, but it was terrific with food (hipster pizza: roasted tomatoes, mixed cheeses, shallots, garlic and onion, on sourdough focacia). This is a hell of a lot of wine for about $15.40 (case discount). I tasted at the store from a bottle that had been open several days and it was downright creamy, so I suppose this wine has a bright future ahead of it.