My local wine merchant carries a wide selection of the wines of Anton Finkenauer, an old Nahe producer. They get one star from Gault-Millau, whose write up says rather critically that going to their winery is like stepping back in a timewarp everything is so antiquated. The prices are right, though, so I have been buying them.

This 2001 Spätlese Halbtrocken was decent but nothing great. Mineral, pineapple and apricot notes, but a LOT of acidity. Drier than the 2001 spätlese trocken I had from Robert Weil, for example. This wine tasted a lot better on the second night - more complex flavors and sugars - which suggests the wine had closed down. 84-85 points. Cost 6 pounds/$11.50.

My favorite Finkenauer so far has been the 1993 Kreuznacher Kahlenberg Spätlese. I'd give it an 89-90.

I had the last bottle of the '92 Kreuznacher Kahlenberg Spätlese last night. A lovely little wine, full of fruit and acidity, and yet also that dense, resinous aroma that some people call petrol. The color was golden-orange.

Very nice with epoisse cheese.

I can't understand why the Gault-Millau guide gives this estate only one star, but perhaps they have been sliding steadily downhill since the early nineties when this wine was produced.

I have had exactly one Finkenauer in my life, a '99 that was truly dreadful. There was no balance, it was very flabby, and there was a serious infection of ignoble rot. They are right there with the Anheuser estate in my book, once proud estates that have not kept up.