Grapefruit skin gold in color, a lot darker than most of the '01 Spatleses I've seen, at 15 1/2 not really a surprise. Not a big nose, but there is plenty of lemon, grapefruit, pear, and mango on the fruit end, maybe a hint of lilac as well. A little heavy fuel oil is here, some hazelnut, and a touch of slate. Its visual and olfactory presentation is very pleasing though the nose is not any kind of big. It draws fat, slow, teardrop legs down the side of the glass, the bottle lists it at a teeny 7.5% alcohol.
It is viscous in the mouth, but if you've been drinking '01 spatlese, this comes off as reminding you of the dryer kabinetts, it is just barely sweet. Green apple, lemon, and grapefruit predominate the palate, but richness of fruit is lacking, the minerality is perceptable on the tongue and continues into the lengthy grapefruit dominated finish. Not exactly a steal at $30, but not bad wine by any means. No flaws by me, well made of course, just short or stuffin all the way around. Would score this low 80's, probably 82.

Cheers for the TN's, Stealth. Mucho appreciated.

I guess I should drink mine now. I've got two bottles, although I paid $42 NZD (21 USD) per bottle for a case back in 1989 and drank most of them in the early 90's when they were considerably more "fresh". I left thee two bottles for the 20 yr mark to see what they would be like. I won't bother and will drink them over the next month or so.

I'd be very curious to learn from your impressions Jeremy, I'm quite sure you've drank quite a few more vintage Rieslings than I have. Please let us know what you think.

Interesting, Stealth. I've never had an aged Spatlese. In fact, I rarely buy any German wines drier than a BA. I do age the BA's, TBA's, and Eisweins, but I like them best about 4 years after vintage date. I've had a few Ausleses (Bernk. DR.) with some age on them and I think their freshness preferable to any complexity they may attain with further aging.

Sweet tooth eh? I pick one or two of these up every couple of months or so from a place called Corti Bros. near downtown Sac. It's one of the few places around here where you can get a good selection of imported meats (real frankfurters mmmm!) and cheeses. He has a pretty eclectic selection up and down the board. He rarely carries 'hot' wines, but always has odd ones, vintage madeira is a specialty for him, odd enough? He's got some '89ers I'd like to try, but a couple of them are mid $40s priced so I look and pick something else up.

It's not so much that I have a sweet tooth as it is that I don't really enjoy dry Rieslings. I'd much rather have a Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, or Viognier. I do think the Germans, for the most part, produce the best non-fortified dessert wines.

I have had some really old riesling when I was over there a few years back. Will post some tns when I find my notes- they're hiden around here on my old clunky machine. (Nows thats old....)