Sweetstuff's Wines

erroneous review

Was this wine used in a Bourguignon? It's not red. A possible identity mixup? Also the price listed is about 10 times the ex-domain price, giving more credence to this supposition.

Purchased at Weinhaus Porn, Bernkastel. Awkward and lacking life; undoubtedly enjoyed at the wrong time.

3/26/2009: 2007 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese * and Auslese *** Auction - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (3/25/2009) TN:2007 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese * Auction (Versteigerungswein) Bernkasteler Ring Auction 2008 AP 2 576562 18 08; 9.0 pabv. Imported via Ewald Moseler Selections/Mitchell Wines, Portland, OR. Estimated costs: 6 bottles @ € 9.5 (US $14.25) plus US $4.26 (exchange fees and shipping)= $18.51 plus $4.00 per bottle UPS fees $18.51 wholesale; $27.77/750 ml estimated retail value at 33.3 percent markup on selling cost 120x 750 ml bottles produced; 6 bottles thought to be imported into the United States. Moderately strong straw-green (chlorophyll-like) like most Kerpen wines of this style. Mint, lavender, baby powder, spun sugar, transparent apple, hint of unleavened bread on the nose. Very firm acids on entry with a delicate floral impression; lissome body; sugar almost hidden under the acid but there's plenty of residual there, I think. Lime and a little peach on the finish. This wine is still a little rustic and has a touch of roughness, but will come together, I believe, with a little more time. Plenty of flavor and plenty of complexity and stylishness. 89-91/100. Note that these wines were perforce tasted within a week of shipping receipt, so this is a conservative score. By the third day a pleasant and promising hint of Prüm-like yeastiness and a nice vibrancy and integration, playing off the lime and lime-peel, have started to show. TN:2007 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese *** Auction (Versteigerungswein) Bernkasteler Ring Auction 2008. AP 2 576562 24 08; 8.5 pabv; imported via Ewald Moseler Selections/Mitchell Wines, Portland, OR. Estimated Costs 6x 375 ml bottles purchased @ €14.00 (US $21.00each) plus US $4.26 (exchange fees and shipping)= $25.26 plus $4.00 per bottle UPS fees. $25.26 wholesale; $37.89 retail value at 33.3 percent markup on selling cost. 60 x 375 ml produced; 6 x 375 ml thought to have been imported into the United States Color may even be a little lighter than the Spätlese, but the same shade of green; heavier-bodied, of course. Strong unleavened bread scent, with honey, peach and mango; has a decided yeast note. Plenty of honey and soaring acid on entry; some citrus on the mid-palate; fairly well integrated for such a powerful wine. Enough botrytis to have been called a Beerenauslese, but not as sweet and sticky as would earn that title. The numbers are there, though, I'd bet. So is plenty of deftness on its feet for such a big wine. Very long finish that summarizes all of the above, with predominating honey and tartness. Needs some time to be adequately judged. 90-92/100. This is again a tasting within the first week after arrival, and so conservative. On the third day, the reductive yeast notes and the honey/apricot scents have melded to create something finer than at first. The acids and the sweetness are firm but balanced, and a neat bitter lime-peel sneaks in to the finish to bring about better integration. Both of these will be stunning beauties at the price I paid for them--about $22.50 and $43.90 INCLUDING SHIPPING, respectively.

TN: 2006 Maximin Grünhäuser Riesling Auslese AP 3 536 014 19 07; 8.5 degrees abv; $22/750 ml; JJ Barkley; Valckenberg; Tulsa, OK.Highly refractive polished brass with a touch of orange.Cotton candy, white pepper, bread, tangerine, and mannitol. There's sufficient strawberry notes to reveal the iron in the red-slate soil. Sweet tangerine appears again on palate with good definition and great force revealing a very ripe, hot vintage. Quite sweet and with powerful but ripe acidity, with perhaps at this point just a touch of heat on the vivid and powerful aftertaste.. Lacking the earthiness that can often be found in this wine. A very vine example of the genre. Much appreciated by the crowd at Winds, served after the Riesling tasting of June 2008. The force of this wine lends it a touch of rusticity, which may rwith about 13-15 years of aging. There is an AP 19 bottling of this as well, and probably some fuder number bottlings, too.

Recent Arrivals at the Trombleyhaus:2007 Heribert Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese * and Auslese *** Auction - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (3/25/2009)TN:2007 Heribert Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese * Auction (Versteigerungswein) Bernkasteler Ring Auction 2008AP 2 576562 18 08; 9.0 pabv. Imported via Ewald Moseler Selections/Mitchell Wines, Portland, OR.Estimated costs:6 bottles @ € 9.5 (US $14.25) plus US $4.26 (exchange fees and shipping)= $18.51 plus $4.00 per bottle UPS fees$18.51 wholesale; $27.77/750 ml estimated retail value at 33.3 percent markup on selling cost120x 750 ml bottles produced; 6 bottles thought to be imported into the United States.Moderately strong straw-green (chlorophyll-like) like most Kerpen wines of this style. Mint, lavender, baby powder, spun sugar, transparent apple, hint of unleavened bread on the nose.Very firm acids on entry with a delicate floral impression; lissome body; sugar almost hidden under the acid but there's plenty of residual there, I think. Lime and a little peach on the finish.This wine is still a little rustic and has a touch of roughness, but will come together, I believe, with a little more time. Plenty of flavor and plenty of complexity and stylishness. 89-91/100. Note that these wines were perforce tasted within a week of shipping receipt, so this is a conservative score.By the third day a pleasant and promising hint of Prüm-like yeastiness and a nice vibrancy and integration, playing off the lime and lime-peel, have started to show. By 3/31, open for almost 6 days, the wine has settled into a brisk, transparent-green minerality with a nice touch of saffron medicinality. There's even a touch of pleasant. juicy metallicity on the finish. More promising and I'm giving it another point. After reading the note on Kerpen's 2007s in International Wine Cellar, it's possible this is the best Kerpen Spätlese made in 2007. 91/100.TN:2007 Heribert Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese *** Auction (Versteigerungswein) Bernkasteler Ring Auction 2008.AP 2 576562 24 08; 8.5 pabv; imported via Ewald Moseler Selections/Mitchell Wines, Portland, OR.Estimated Costs 6x 375 ml bottles purchased @ €14.00 (US $21.00each) plus US $4.26 (exchange fees and shipping)= $25.26 plus $4.00 per bottle UPS fees. $25.26 wholesale; $37.89 retail value at 33.3 percent markup on selling cost. 60 x 375 ml produced; 6 x 375 ml thought to have been imported into the United StatesColor may even be a little lighter than the Spätlese, but the same shade of green; heavier-bodied, of course. Strong unleavened bread scent, with honey, peach and mango; has a decided yeast note.Plenty of honey and soaring acid on entry; some citrus on the mid-palate; fairly well integrated for such a powerful wine. Enough botrytis to have been called a Beerenauslese, but not as sweet and sticky as would earn that title. The numbers are there, though, I'd bet. So is plenty of deftness on its feet for such a big wine.Very long finish that summarizes all of the above, with predominating honey and tartness. Needs some time to be adequately judged. 90-92/100. This is again a tasting within the first week after arrival, and so conservative.On the third day, the reductive yeast notes and the honey/apricot scents have melded to create something finer than at first. The acids and the sweetness are firm but balanced, and a neat bitter lime-peel sneaks in to the finish to bring about better integration. Both of these will be stunning beauties at the price I paid for them--about $22.50 and $43.90 INCLUDING SHIPPING, respectively.

TN: Joh. Jos. Prüm 2001 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese (white capsule), AP 2 576 511 28 02; $32/750 ml, Village Corner, Ann Arbor, MI; 7.5 pabv; Rudi Wiest Cellars International, Carlsbad CA. As is usual, plenty of different AP numbers for these; one other I remember seeing is 19-02.Found a bottle with a slightly protruding capsule; as I didn't remember seeing this before, I thought this would be a good bottle to either enhance or reduce the worries about the 2001 Auslesen.The cork was protruding about 2 mm. Not the best of corks--it was so jammed into the bottle that it needed an Ah-So to remove it.Does Manfred really use them this short?Polished gold. Plenty of spritz.Opens with typical Prüm yeast stink, but that's nearly gone by the time I decant. Clover flower and honey. with a little lanolin underneath, and springwater running over stone. Later I notice how amazing the empty glass smells--a mile deep and very complex; with the dominating note cigar smoke.Big, powerful, fully-extracted, with pointed white-wine tannins giving plenty of texture to the mouth, added to the tingly minerality. On the other hand, has plenty of definition as well. Has great impact on the mid-palate. Honey and tangerine of a great vintage; at present most of the the bee products are hid, except the honey. A rich Auslese in style, especially for a white cap, with very ripe acidity. Extremely long, with a superb, etched, orangeaid-like finish, with a hint of tobacco smoke and suggestions of high-toned sesquiterpenes, like a clean pininess.Surprisingly, still extremely young-seeming, and an enormously pleasurable drink, something you don't expect at seven years with these wines. But don't use me as an excuse to commit infanticide among your Prüm 2001 Auslesen. 96/100.For reference, here's what this wine tasted like shortly after release in April 2003, five years ago, to German wine aficionado John Trombley:Has a nicely polished warm, anodized gold color.Sweet grass, lime, thyme, peach, with spring airs of clover flower. The palate is crisp, ripe, and balanced between tartrate and malate Crisp and honied, with a military, almost martial air; a Chambertin of a Riesling, perhaps 4-5 percent fruit sugar, glucose, and glycerin. This gives moderately sweet Auslese material; this will be a fairly dry Auslese selection as time goes on.Plenty of lees aging as is typical for this producer, giving a distinct, sulfurous wet wool impression that demands integration over time for best results. As this wine should be purchased for cellaring, this does not present a problem for those who know them or who are willing to find out how they behave with bottle age. 96/100: it’s difficult to understand how the Spectator gives this wine less than it give the Himmelreich Auslese, except for relative ignorance in the case of German wine.Happy I have more of this, and a few Goldkaps, too.__________________