Drank 2002 April with Riesling poached pears with preserved walnuts. At lunch time. Title area didn't allow me to put the full title in this is a Riesling Auslese.

FWG is one of my favourite MSR producers- sure he's not as forward or powerful as Christoffell's wine or as refined as Dr Muller but the wines always retain the essence of the MSR in my mind. Mineral notes dominate and the technical style that FWG heads toward allows these wines to develope well over a long period.

Colour: deeper gold with a slight green tinge (?)a little co'2 bubble expression although very minimal.
Nose: Initially kerosene dominating but this faded (or my nose adjusted) to show through with pineapple, pear, a steelly note and slight hints of vanilla, walnut,mango and apricot. Some slightly fresh strawberry notes also started to develope as I finished the wine.
Palate: Excellent balance of acids and sugars (as to be expected), with the palate length very very good. Finishing around the fore palate with a drifting evervescence of texture, filling the mouth as the flavours faded.
Overall: A very enjoyable wine that made me smile a great deal. 17/20 (this was back in the day before I started using a 100 point system.)

Jeremy, this talk of kerosene (sulfur, petrol, etc.) in older riesling is starting to bother me, especially since you had a MSR. I generally drink 80% MSR (mainly middle Mosel) with remaining being some good rheingau, Donnhoff (Nahe) and Darting (Pfalz). I've never noticed this petrol until I've tried some young Nahe and an old Egon Muller (Saar). I've been fortunate to try hundreds of rieslings recently (by attenting all of the 2001 tastings in my area and there have been some great ones) and I've never noticed this. Now my experience with old rieslings is much more limited, but again, I've never run into this.

I would like to hear your experienc on this because it will detemine how I drink my 2001 rieslings.

No ,not sulphur or petrol. More a slight bitter sweeter (much sweeter than that oilly sulphur smell old Nahe and Aussie's get.)phenolic note that makes it self evident at the edge of the nose. I notice it in a great deal of older Auslese or sweeter MSR wines, not so much in Spatlese or lower which I find dominated by pears/apples/sweeter fresh minerals.

I agree the wines of Nahe are particularly dominated by what I would call more petrolly rather than kerosene(ie I guess more bitter to the nose). I still think these wines are clean and mineral dominated (fresh) but with the sweeter wines I have noticed a great deal of phenol chemicals becoming evident as they age. I think Dr Mullers wines are prime examples as they age they become considerably dominated by that smell but it seems intergrated and well developed as opposed to overt and in your face. Mind you his Ausles and sweeter are capable of fourty years.......

Jeez now I sound like I smell petrol for a living.

Does that clarify?

I would say your expirience in younger MSR(4>) would far supercede mine, and value any comment you have. It would be interesting to sit down with you and try some aged rieslings and young rieslings and see where our tns matched or did not.

Jeremy, thanks. At our BAWE tasting yesterday, I opened 2 rieslings (two of my favorites now) - 2001 Monchhof Urziger Wurzgarten spatlese and 2001 Meulenhoff Erdener Treppchen spatlese. Love them both. One of the members brought a 1990 Lingenfelder spatlese (didn't catch the vineyard). It had the phenolic note, as you describe. The Egon Muller (I believe it was a 1990) really had it. It is more like a VA smell, which I'm noticing in more wines now days.

I have to admit that the phenolic smell is interesting and I'm starting to get used to it, but I absolutely love the nose of younger rieslings. I was thinking of slowing down my 2001 riesling consumption (500 bottles, 1 bottles per week < 5 years), but now I'm not so sure why I should slow down.

When I've tried more mature rieslings in the past, I've never noticed this phenolic nose. Instead, it is more like what tsunami describes when it just comes out of the shut down phase where the wine is still bright, a little rounder and fuller and still has a lot of fruit and minerals, but it is more integrated.

But, if I'm going to err, I prefer to have it younger because I kind of like the biting acidity and a couple of hours of air time can really bring out the focused fruit in the nose.

GATC,
I guess part of it is because I analyse wines and look to see how they are developing, my job and choice of career dictates it- what a pain eh?. Where as if it came down to just drinking them for enjoyement, I to wouldn't allow them to get past about three years, they're just too yummy!!