1992 Braunneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese, Willi Haag
Showing creamy pear fruit and adequate sweetness, this is ready to drink. The acids and sugar are in harmony & the finish is long and minerally.

1989 Abtsberg Riesling Auslese #24, Maximin Grunhaus
Not as bright as the Haag, showing darker baked apple aromas and flavors. Still not developing that Grunhaus “pine forest” aroma, but appealingly complex. There’s a bit of a botrytis nip on the finish that is slightly bitter.

1990 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese, Donnhoff
Changing gears and going for apple blossom, cherry and peach flavors with significant smoke overtones. This seems a little tart, but is better with food.

2001 Leiwener Laurentiuslay Riesling Auslese, St. Urbans Hof
Here’s a palate shock. Diesel and leesy stink on the nose for the first 30 minutes. I left some in the glass & it eventually opened to reveal all the tangerine, minerals and white peach you could ask for in a glass of wine. This is remarkably dry for 2001 auslese, but very well balanced. The sweetness came out more with time in the glass.

1990 Wehelener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Gold Cap, Meulenhof
Showing very well. Apple, lemon cream, vanilla and stones all in a slightly caramelly matrix. My favorite of the older wines to this point.

1971 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Kronenberg Riesling Auslese, Karthauserhof
Dead.

1971 Kaseler Nies'chen Riesling Auslese, von Beuwlitz
Dying.

1976 Erbacher Schlossberg Riesling Auslese, Schloss Reinhartshausen
Not dead yet. Honey and apricots. Lots of sweetness and botrytis still in the bottle. The finish is long and sweet, with soft acids. Very tasty.

1959 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Burgberg Riesling Feine Auslese, Fuder Nr. 64, Karthauserhof
Still clinging to life with bitter almond, apricot and stones. No real sweetness left, but drinks very well as a dry wine. With these older wines you have to get your head around the fact that they are likely to be dry or barely off dry. This is why so many 2001s are so sweet today, so they can age and become delicious old wines.

1975 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Eiswein, J.J. Prum
Remarkable. All the signatures of Wehlen; apple, vanilla and lemon cream are distilled to their essence in a still sweet, but perfectly balanced package. Free of botrytis and just showing the essence of the site as mastered by this producer. (For those who don’t know, it was only in the ‘80s that the Eiswein pradikat was totally codified. It now must be at least BA in ripeness, and the additional pradikat listing has been eliminated, so there’s no more Auslese Eiswein. Too bad I say if it makes wines like this.)

1921 Rauenthaler Huhnerberg Riesling Auslese Cabinet, Rheingau Staatsweinguter
What a privilege to drink this wine. This had been recorked at some time during its life, and as such was still wine and not some crazy oxidized mess. Certainly there was an impression of sherry, but also apricot, almond and brown sugar. It actually got better as it sat in the glass, where I thought it would quickly fall apart. There was even a touch of sweetness left to the wine that became more apparent with airtime. A remarkable relic of an earlier age that was even more astounding for being from a half bottle.

1953 Durkheimer Michelsberg Riesling Spatlese, Vier Jahreszeiten
The host while visiting the estate had purchased this wine. Storage in its ancestral home had done wonders for it. The color was the most striking thing about it, with a yellow/green shade reminding me of the Mosel (this is a Pfalz wine). Apple skin, tart peach and nuts were the dominant flavors though there was a distinct grassy note on the nose. I have some doubts about the original quality of this wine (I think it was not the ripest thing in the world to start), but it sure has aged well for something 50 years old. This was like a mini time machine.

1976 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, S.A Prum
Yeah 28 years old is a good time to drink TBA. Honey, caramel, apricot, brown sugar, and baked apple with loads of butter all came together in my favorite wine of the night. The beauty of it is there was some left over, so I got to have extras! Delicious wine that was amazingly long on the finish.

As our host said, “When you open bottles this old you have to kiss a few frogs.” Well there were a few frogs, but some wonder wines as well. To be able to go back 82 years in time and taste a wine from before the depression was great enough. To have it be alive and changing in the glass was another thing entirely. This was quite an evening.

And as a bonus tasting note, the prior night I opened one of my few older gems. It had been stored by a friend since release & sold to me when he decided he no longer cared for German wines.

1971 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese
Golden as a wedding ring with a slight touch of green still to be seen, this was ever so promising right from the get go. And not once did it disappoint. Ripe apple, vanilla bean, mineral and sweet blossom aromas mingled with just a touch of fresh wildflower honey. This was enthralling. The flavors tended more towards ripe peaches, with plenty of minerals and sweetness to back it up. There were still loads of life left in this wine, perhaps even another 10 years before it became a shell of itself, but on this night it was perfect. I drank this with my wife and two dear friends at a lovely restaurant in South Jersey (Le Mes Toujours) as we celebrated our combined birthdays (all December/January) and all of the holidays wrapped up into one sweet package. I do not normally give scores, but this was a 100 point wine and a 1000 point evening.

Great reading and very educational. Glad to hear that the 1971 J.J. Prum WS auslese is still drinking great. I think I had a case of the spatlese and this, and the other 71's, were a treat to drink in the 70's and 80's.

VERY interesting and informative post, RF!

The oldest -- and most profound -- Riesling that I have yet had the pleasure to experience was brought to a dinner by Ojeffso last month. It was a 1975 Benedict Loosen - Erben UrzWurz Spatlese*** ... and it was fantastic.

Your notes make it very clear that a tremendous payoff awaits those that can patiently hold their Rieslings to maturity, much like a great Bordeaux. I don't have many of the latter, but I'm doing my best to keep my stash of Rieslings for enjoyment some years -- and decades -- from now.

Thank you for the effort of logging those notes when it would have been easier to just sit back and enjoy these great wines!

Steve

Thanks guys.

I will say this; that I don't think it's really worth laying down a bunch of these wines for 30-50 years as if they were vintage Port. Pedigreed Spatlese and Auslese taste so good at "normal" maturity (10-15 years) that I would not forgo that experience except for perhaps 1 or 2 experimental bottles.

Would it be neat to taste a 2001 sometime in 2050? Sure it would be fun. But I bet whatever wine it is will have tasted better in 2025.

David

p.s. It really didn't take much effort to put these notes together. The wines were very distinctive.

Thanks for the great notes. I have the '71 Prum GH Auslese and have very high hopes for it...if I can ever get the courage to open it....

Great notes. Do you have an opinion on the general character of older wines from Schloss Rheinhartshausen? Consistently good, or spotty? From Broadbent and other sources I get the impression that they once made first class wines, although their more recent offerings (1997-2002) were definitely second tier.

Thanks. I've only had 1999-2001 Kabinetts and wasn't too impressed. I was however impressed with their Michelin-starred "Marcobrunn" restaurant. It's atmosphere is a bit stuffy, but the food is marvellous. It is a place to search out if you're ever in the Rheingau.

I will probably enjoy the 2001's in 2025 more than in 2050. If I am alive in 2050 (which is not likely), I won't have many taste buds left.

GATC, if we are alive in 2050, we won't have many brain cells either.

The actuarial tables don't give me much of a chance at 2050 either, but it's possible.

I think I'll play it safe & drink all of my 2001 auslesen before 2040.

Board-O, you're right. I keep forgetting how old I am. I was going to look for some 2000 Ausone, but I figured that I would be too old to appreciate it 40 years from now.

Yeah, I passed on the '00 Montrose.

You know there are advances in science and medicine every day. We might all be able to see the 2000 Ports to maturity.

With that in mind I bought 2000 Taylor Fladgate, not to mention some 2000 Montrose to cover my bets in St. Estephe.

Actually, I did try to buy the 2000 Montrose with the futures first came out. I placed an order for a case at the listed price $36, only to have it cancelled, when they said they made a typo. They said the real price was $60. I guess it was still a good price.

Once they figure out how to handle the shortening of telomerase every time a cell reproduces, we will be able to live forever.