As part of a tasting I hosted last night I served two wines from Weingut Hexamer in the Nahe. They were the 2001 and 2002 Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Riesling 'Quartzit.'

By way of explanation, the 'Quatzit' is ever so slightly chaptalized kabinett-quality wine that as such must either be sold as Hochgewachs (oh please) or as a mere QbA. In this case (and with good reason) Harald Hexamer chooses the latter & to place a proprietary name on the label based on the quartz in this particular section of the Rheingrafenberg vineyard's soil.

All that said, the wines were single blind for me and double blind for my guests.

The first thing that struck us was the intensity and brightness of (what turned out to be) the 2002. It's so lively and refreshing that, even on a sub-zero evening in New England, it's hard to stop drinking it. By comparison the '01 was rather heavy and cheerless.

The '01 was initially very closed on the nose, and as such it was even more trounced by the '02, which displayed riotous apple, peach and mineral notes. It just was throwingthe aromas out of the glass. Some air time started to bring the '01 around, but most folks were well past the wine by then. Certainly it appears that the '01 is shutting down.

On the palate the relative qualities of hte two wines remained the same. The '01 was almost depressing in its thick palate feel and lack of definition. The '02 was bright, pleasingly acidic & just dancing around the tongue. Again, air time helped bring the '01 out of its shell (and I have the stoppered bottle still in the fridge so I can report again), but it just could not catch up.

Now I will say in defense of the '01 that it has tons of material, and the '02 seems lighter by a relatively wide margin. I think the '02 is the immediate crowd pleaser, while the '01 is more of the marathon runner (in this case perhaps 7-8 years of life). I cannot think of a reason to age more than 1 bottle of the '02 (for science) because it is just fabulous right now. Drink, drink, drink. It's also cheap, at $14.99/bottle before discount it's a great QPR. For those who found the Leitz Dragonstone too sweet, this is still sweet, but I think it's better balanced & would perhaps even compliment some food (where I find the Dragonstone too sweet for food at all).

So all this by way of saying that I cruelly disturbed the sleep of the '01. The '02 is wake and wear. ;^)

A QbA that shuts down! I always thought QbA meant young, fresh (also perhaps chapitalized) but nothing you'd hang onto for more than a couple years. I learn something new every day with german wine.

Rieslingfan, your comments are totally consistent with what I have experienced with 2001's and 2002's.