News

On the fourth day of Christmas

12 December 2024 By Colin Hay

The fourth day of Christmas sees another mixed case, also in need of self-assembly, of the first releases on La Place de Bordeaux from three of the very best German Riesling producers, says Colin Hay.

Format: An unusual seven-bottle mixed case containing: 1 bottle each of Schloss Johannisberg’s Kabinett Orangelack and Trocken Goldlak; 1 bottle each of Dr Loosen’s Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett, Grosses Gewächs and Auslese; and 1 bottle each of Weingut Gunther Steinmetz’s Wintricher Geierslay Kabinett and Piesporter Treppchen Grosses Gewächs.

Unique selling point: In difficult market conditions these first releases on la place all performed extremely well, which actually makes your true love’s task in sourcing these wines today, certainly at anything close to their release prices, rather tricky.

Yours for: Again, there’s quite a lot of potential work to be done here to acquire some of these wine, certainly for anything approaching their Bordeaux release prices. But some quick homework suggests that a mixed case like this can currently be assembled for around €500, duty and tax paid.

Tasting notes:

Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Kabinett Orangelack 2023 (Rheingau; 100% Riesing; 1200 bottles; barrel-pressed with vinification in steel and just 6 months of oak aging). A wine that has not been commercialised since the 1980s. There are just 1200 bottles, as for the other cuvée. This is the top Kabinett of the estate. Pure. Clean. Precise and focussed. A lovely tension between the sucrosity and the searing acidity. Mandarin rind and zest. A little floral honeyed note, saffron too (in the same vein). So clean and rapier-like in its precision. White flowers, white pear and a little blanched almond, Granny Smith flesh too. Exquisite. 95.

Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Trocken Goldlak 2021 (Rheingau; 100% Riesling; 1200 bottles; 33 months of aging in oak). This is rather different. A little more oxidative at least aromatically. Creamier too in texture. Raisins; grapefruit and its zest; quince; crab apple; a little gooseberry. Incredibly vertical, with all the lift of an interstellar rocket, intensely crunchy and fresh – like biting into a Granny Smith but to find an even more acidic fruit juice – quince perhaps. A hint of iodine too. In short, great complexity albeit in an as yet not entirely resolved form – this needs a certain patience. Pure; fine; refined; very linear. Impressive, if still very much in its infancy, and dancing on the limit in terms of its acidity – but that’s perhaps what I love about this the most. When re-tasted in London a month on this is fresher still, above all on the palate, with a wondrous aromatic complexity. So pure and focused on the palate. So chiselled you could cut your fingers on it. 96.

Weingut Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett 2018 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; just 1200 bottles from a parcel of 130 year old vines on ungrafted rootstock on blue Devonian slate; 31.2 g/l of residual sugar; 9.5.% alcohol; tasted twice, first with the courtier and then from a sample sent from the estate). Just bottled when first tasted. Incredibly intense, pure, quite rich and full. A very sinuous spine to which the fruit is very tightly held. Complex. Very saline. White honey, peanut brittle, almost a little candyfloss and strawberry candy on the finish. White pear, Asiatic pear, flint and slate, passion fruit. A wine of great complexity but great harmony too – my list of descriptors doesn’t quite capture that. Searingly bright in its acidity, with lovely notes of quince and lime. White grapefruit and a hint of bitter almond. There’s a touch of toast too. Very pure and crystalline, despite the viscosity. Struck match on the finish and very saline too. Fascinating. Finishes very high on the top of the mouth. A true vin de garde and another Kabinett capable of redefining the reputation of this often underappreciated style of Riesling. The potential value of this extraordinary. 95.

Weingut Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Dry Grosses Gewächs 2018 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; just 1200 bottles from a parcel of 130 year old vines on ungrafted rootstock on blue Devonian slate; 5.3 g/l of residual sugar; 13% alcohol). A more conventionally ‘petrolled’ Riesling note. In the mouth, this is immensely fresh and bright, highly acidic and charged. Orange blossom; white almond; white pear; quince; gooseberry and gooseberry leaf. A hint of the tobacconist’s too. Very mineral – crushed pebbles, slate, flint and iodine, oyster shell perhaps. More strict and linear than the slightly more sinuous and meandering Kabinett. Incredibly complex and unlike any other Riesling I’ve ever tasted. Very much a baby and not the easiest wine to capture in a tasting note. 95+.

Weingut Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm Erben, Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 2018 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; just 1200 bottles from a parcel of 130 year old vines on ungrafted rootstock on blue Devonian slate; 39.8 g/l of residual sugar; 10% alcohol). More crystalline that the other expressions of this singular terroir. Fireworks and cordite. Pine cones. Quince. Incredibly lifted and, again, highly acidic. An upward pointed fire hose of fresh fruit juice – pear, peach, apricot (just a little), quince, white melon. A tonne of stony minerality. Pipe smoke (a trace). Extremely saline. Fleur de sel. Iodine. Another vin de garde requiring a certain amount of forward projection on the part of the taster. Staggering potential. 96+.

Weingut Gunther Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Kabinett 2023 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; 7.5% alcohol). Very much a rising star of the Mosel. A new Markus Molitor? A brilliant and highly distinctive wine, and simply incredible value for money when you consider that this is one of the cheapest wines offered on la place this year. Very clean. Fascinating. Ultra-fresh, ultra-pure and captivatingly complex on the nose – with whetstone, lime, greengage, green tea and fennel seed all immediately vying for attention. Lovely texturally and surprising in both its richness (which you don’t quite expect from the aromatics) and the residual sugar (ditto). Great tension – not least between the vertical lift provided by the searing fresh acidity and the horizontal refocussing on the palate that comes with the richness, reinforced by the touch of sucrosity. The salinity brings additional seasoning. Apricot and apricot skin, quince, lime and that subtle green tea note again. Lovely acidity and lift. Lemon sorbet, too, and hint of fleur d’oranger as the freshness re-establishes itself on the finish. A Kracher of a wine (the first time you taste it, it’s a revelation). 96.

Weingut Gunther Steinmetz Piesporter Treppchen Grosses Gewächs 2023 (Mosel; 100% Riesling; 12.5% alcohol). From an incredibly steep sloping terraced vineyard of old vines (now 90 years in age) on a silvery grey slate soil. Creamier and richer at first than the Wintricher Geierslay Kabinett but that make the tension even more remarkable. Apples and crab apples, quince and pear, with the same crystalline purity; flint and a hint of lemon balm, fennel fronds, but also a fascinating note of salted butter melting on popcorn. Rhubarb! Hyper-mineral. Hyper-pure and incredibly zesty on the palate. Crushed slate. Very fresh, almost strict but with incredible purity and pixilation, with the acidity playing a role equivalent to the tannins in a crumbly-textured limestone-terroir young St Emilion for instance. Like the Kabinett, very long on the finish. Fabulous in its potential but needing plenty of patience. 97.

*while the fourth day of Christmas actually falls on 28th December, the db offices will be shut between Christmas and New Year, so publishing in advance should give you time to get organised and stock up!

White wine revival: Australia’s industry battles decline with strategic adjustments

British wine industry secures government funding for robotics project