Winzer Von Erbach Riesling 2011 (litre)

Honeyed style, rich minerality and luscious creaminess. Flavors of baked pineapple and pear. Fresh and juicy on the finish.

From the famous Erbacher Honigberg vineyard. Average of the vines is 20 years old. 

Cool fermentation, matured on the lees for 2 months before bottling, with a slight filtration.

Riesling Rheingau Erbacher Honigberg Spatlese goes well with Indian Curry and blue Cheese

SALE!

Weinkeller Erbach Riesling (liter) is 100 percent Riesling. 

Round and refreshing wine with light touches of lemon and lime on the nose. Slightly sweet mouthfeel, with juicy and fruity flavors.

Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese is a late harvest wine produced from grapes picked around 7 days after regular harvest time. The wine is rich, intense, full flavored. Pear, honeysuckle, apple and great acidity that make it a balanced and elegant wine.

Timeless Notes:

Let's have a quick recall of German Riesling labeling. There are four main tiers of sweetness that I usually stick too. There are others, but I find these four to be the most enjoyable: The Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, & of course, the famed Trockenbeerenauslese.

Today, we are talking about a semi-sweet to sweet which is the Spatlese from the Gessinger family estate. It comes from a fully ripe grape and is the lightest of the late harvest Rieslings. These wines drink very young or within a few years of age. In this case, the wine is on the sweet side, and I have to admit I am not one that usually reaches for the sweeter wines. This one, however, is nearly impossible to put down after trying.

The majority of Rieslings worth mentioning are grown along the Mosel river. The bank of the Mosel is made up of different types of blue or red slate.  The soil type we are dealing with today is the best of the best, Devonian slate. This very porous slate combined with the clay soil give the wines grown in the region a fine mineral taste as well as excellent balance.

The Gessinger family moved from Italy to the Mosel region of Zelting in the 1500's. In 1680 their winery was founded and in 1820 they became one of the first family owned vineyards in the middle Mosel. In 1899, they joined an exclusive group of winery owners dedicated to the Mosel called, "The Bernkastel Ring". They have been members of this elite group for over 100 years. The Ring is composed of the finest producers in Germany which sell to connoisseurs all over the world. Because of the Ring's reputation, for years Gessinger's wines were only sold at their September auction. This made it impossible for anyone outside of the "click" to get a hold of these top Rieslings.

I spent a week in Bernkastel, a small hamlet in the middle Mosel, a true story book town. Each morning looking out over the town, I would almost expect to see medieval peasants totting their grapes down from the river banks. On my final day, I had a chance to catch up with the Gessinger family. We tasted their fabulous wines in a small underground tavern. Even with the smoke spilling out of the flu from the chimney, I was still able to smell the aroma of apricot, pear, and some granny apples rising from the glass. The wine is well balanced, rich, flavored and intense. It has good acidity to help balance out the late harvest grapes. Elegant and food friendly. 

This is a wine I would use to start a meal off and it works just as well to finish one up. It will drink well for the next few years... no rush in consuming this one.

With only 2000 cases produced total, this includes their Spatlese and Auslese, there is not much to go around!

Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese is a big and rich wine with ripe peach and pear on the nose, honeyed, citrus and mineral aromas. Clean and pure, distinctive character. Very long finish

All vineyards are located in the middle Mosel town of Zelting. Weingut Gessinger joined the Bernkastel Ring in 1899 and for years their wines only appeared at their September auction. Gessinger is quite small, less than 2,000 cases and all his whites are 100% Riesling planted on Devon Slate (best soil type of the area).

Hansen Lauer Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling is a nice Mosel-Riesling with a lot of minerality and a hint of stewed apple, cantalope and dried orange flavors. The finish is long and clean, which make it very easy to drink.

This is coming from grapes grown on 100% Devonian slate soils. After harvest, the grapes are sorted in order to keep only the best quality. It is then aged on the lees for more than 6 months, giving the wine richness and depth.

The Hansen Lauer Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling goes well with turkey and seafood

Hansen-Lauer Bernkasteler Graben Riesling Spätlese was grown on grey devonian slate and comes from a vineyard overlooking the picturesque town of Bernkastel-Kues located in a bend of the Middle Mosel. The wine shows everything that makes a classic Mosel Riesling, minerality, acidity and fruit nicely balanced.
The ageing potential of this wine is 15 years.

The grapes were hand-picked at the end of October. The fermentation took two months at low temperatures to preserve some residual sugar. The young wine was left sitting on the fine lees for another three months afterwards giving a rounder balance. 

Bottling occured seven months after harvest.

This is a full-grown wine which doesn't need any accompanying dish, but if you are looking for one try to pair it with Roquefort cheese (blue cheese), foie gras or desert like fruit cake.

Review:

"A step up, the 2015 Bernkasteler Graben Riesling Spätlese offer more complexity in its sugared peach, honeyed minerality, and subtle petrol aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, with bright acidity, it’s a winner as well as about as easy-drinking as it gets.”
- Jeb Dunnuck (March 27th 2019), 90 pts