SteveTimko
Steve Timko
The Austrian wines that stood out for me were the 2007 Spaetrot-Gebeshuber Classic Red, a blend of St. Laurent and pinot noir ($17). This one seemed a little more precise and focused and maybe less ripe than the 2005. Still a food-friendly wine;
the 2007 Bernhard Ott Riesling vom Roten Schotter, which had great apple and citrus flavors and was precised and focused and enough fruit that it wasn't too dry; the 2007 Ott Der Ott, which may be the best gruner veltliner I've ever had but maybe gets demerits in that it doesn't taste like a typical GruVe. No white pepper or peaches. It reminded me more of gewurztraminer in that it was yeasty and maybe white fruit and flowers. There was also some honey. Intensely flavored though but still balanced; the 2007 Mantlerhof Riesling Zehetnerin, which was stony, nicely balanced with some white fruits and lemon; the 2007 Hiedler Riesling Steinhaus, which Terry Thiese says in his catalog is like Sauvignon Blanc. I agree. I get some nice grassiness and cat piss along with white flowers and and some citrus. At $35 kind of expensive though.
That's not true for the 2007 Hirsch gruner veltliner Heiligenstein, which was DA BOMB and only $24. Just a stand out on the nose and the palate. White flowers and a spice garden on the nose and lots of spices and some honey on the palate. Elegant and balanced. Lots of depth for a $24 wine.
Moving on to Germany, the 2007 Becker Landgraf pinot noir stood out and seems like a steal at $22. One taster I talked to about it compared it to New Zealand pinot noir. It's riper than Burgundy but not quite in typical California character. Santa Cruz Mountains, maybe? Loads of spice though. No noticeable oak. When I think of German pinot noir I think of it being something like the pinot noir out of the Alsace, which can be quite wretched, but this was better than any pinot noir I've had out of the Alsace. Doesn't really seem to be one to lay down.
Thanks to this board, I tried the Vollenweider wines and all three were excellent. The 2007 Vollenweider Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Kabinett seemed to stand out the most. Quite restrained and elegant with a nice core of acid and maybe a little too much sweetness for a Kabinett but it will probably be perfect in about five years. The 2007 spatlese was good. More apple flavor maybe and a little bit creamier, but I think right now I prefer the kabinett.
Arjun (that's him at the far right of the upper photo) was there and pointed me to the Weiser-Kunstler, which were next to the Vollenweider on the table and it turns out they're also near each other on the Mosel. The 2007 Riesling Feinherb was, predictably, too dry for me but the 2007 Trabener Gaispfad kabinett and 2007 Enkirscher Ellergrub spatlese were both solid rieslings. Both precise and seem to be built for the long haul.
Which brings us to what I'll call the great Willi Schaefer controversy. There were several 2007s for sale and in general they were excellent. I think the 2007 Willi Schaefer estate riesling is better than most kabinetts I've had in other years. Nice intensity and focus of fruits while there's also good balancing acidity. Rich for a Qba. The 2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett was good, but seemed to suffer in comparison to the rest of the line up. One of the best wines of the night for me was the 2007 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Kabinett #7. Thiese, in his catalog, says: this is so salty and sassafrassy it could pass for Uerz-Wrz; a ton of class and almost luridly flowery; a palate-staining wine with 8% alcohol; like a stony springwater (think Volvic or Contrexeville) with a tic of blackberry in a single silvery rivulet. Sneaky-long too. Well, I completely missed the salt and got some of the sassafrass, but the minerality was tremendous. Really nice depth and focus. And a tremendous finish. I'd offer this as a textbook German riesling to anyone. Right next to it on the table, though, was the 2007 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett #2; which to my taste buds just flat out sucked. Disjointed, no elegance or finesse, And a really weird flavor on the finish. Like maybe there was a flaw in fermenting. I started quizzing people, even annoying them perhaps, to see which Schaefer kabinett they liked best. Most seemed to agree with me. I asked Arjun but he punted, saying the wines were too warm by the time he tried them. Bill Mayer insisted many people liked it. I think it's a wine with problems. I wonder if others have tried it. Schaefer's 2007 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Sptlese also was nice, but seemed to have too much sweetness. There's a nice core of acidity to the wine. I wonder if all that sweetness is really kind of a fat so that wine can hibernate for 30 years.