Bert Simon's is the last property in the Saar proper and it's a beautiful spot. Bert has absolutely spectacular vineyards in the Serrig Herrenberg and the Serrig Wurtzberg which Rudi Wiest believes have even more potential than they have shown. We will see if he is right as Bert just sold the property and label to the Siemens family. Very nice people with a very precocious young boy who can manuever Bert's steep vineyards like no one I have ever seen. We will see what direction the Siemens family take the property. I only hope up. I will try and forget that they had Chardonnay planted in the Serrig Wurtzberg. And Auxxerois. Why anyone would grow anything besides Riesling is beyond me. With the 2006 vintage onward the wine will not be called Bert Simon anymore but Siemens. The new label design is as of now undecided. Bert really pulled out all the stops for this tasting and it was one of the most memorable of the trip. These wines are just amazing values.
'69 Serriger Herrenberg Wurtzberg - What a way to start! Amazingly silky palate with clean and ripe fruit and creamy density that is brilliant. Flavors of hay and creamed corn with an explosive finish. As they say "what an old young wine."
'05 Estate Riesling Kabinett Trocken - Bready, yeasty nose that gives off a done dry impression. Great fruit intensity and excellent purity anf focus. Fun stuff.
'05 Serriger Wurtzberg Kabinett Halbtrocken - Minerally nose with accents of hay, raspberry and powdered sweet tarts. Wonderful texture and very nice purity. Excellent tension of sugar and acid.
'04 Estate Riesling QBA - Sweet greens, minerals and some ripe pear fruit on the nose. Fat peachy fruit on the palate with a silken-like texture and excellent purity.
'04 Serrig Herrenberg Kabinett - Great nose. First wine besides the '69 where it made me smell twice. Chalk and lemons galor with ripe fruit in the background. Tremendous concentration and purity with amazing length. Great wine.
'05 Serrig Herrenberg Kabinett - Great purity, clarity and density to this one. Fatter and more ripe than the '04 but I don't think finer. Finishes very dry for a wine with so much concentrated sweet fruit.
'98 Serrig Wurtzberg Spatlese - This is drinking perfectly today with nice petrolly minerally and complex flavors along with great ripeness. Not profund but delicious right now.
'04 Serrig Wurztberg Spatlese - Very nice easygoing wine. Complex fruit and wonderful lift from the intense acids. Great texture and a slatey finish.
'03 Serrig Wurztberg Spatlese - One of the better '03's of the trip. Very pretty nose with excellent intense perfume, candied red fruits bordering on tropical and a slab of slate. Excellent palate with just enough acidity not to lose interest.
'05 Serrig Wurtzberg Spatlese - The best of the Spatlesen so far. Liquid minerals and huge fruit on the nose. Extremely viscous with conentrated, ripe, pulpy and fleshy fruit. Incredible length. Wow wine!
'02 Serrig Wurtzberg Auslese - Big nose of botrytis and tropical fruits all complemented by a steely aspect. Extremely viscous and concentrated with good by not exceptional length.
'89 Serrig Herrenberg Auslese - Nose of mushrooms, lemons and chlorophyl. Very complex aromas with a nice but not great palate that has loads of asian spices. I was a bit dissapointed with this one.
'89 Serrig Wurtzberg Auslese GK - Much younger nose than the non GK version. Incredibly complexity with lemon curd, pertrol and tangy nectarine. The palate echoes the nose with incredibly red pulp fruit tang and tremendous density and concentration. Acidity keeps it all together on the cresecendo of a finish. Excellent stuff.
'90 Serrig Wurtzberg Auslese GK - Petrolly nose with ripe, dense fruit. This nose just smelled like this wine was going to be stuffed. Young palate with steely minerality and incredibly explosive, complex flavors. Another "young" wine. Great echoey finish.
'05 Serrig Wurtzberg Auslese - Confectionary nose of brown sugar and ripe red and stone fruits. Outrageous palate with so much peach fruit it just seems unfair.
'99 Serrig Herrenberg Auslese - Very open nose of huge ripe pit fruits with a long finish. Not really showing that much complexity but what it lacks in complexity it makes up for in sheer flavor impact.
'03 Serrig Herrenberg Auslese GK - Just a huge botrytis bomb. Tremendous richness and actually some very decent acidity. Some great structure here too. This must be one of those '03's which they say will last over thirty years.
'05 Serrig Herrenberg Auslese GK - This was the best of the young wines at the Simon tasting. Just a drop dead, head-turner. Confectionary, complex nose with tremendous ripeness follows through onto a palate of great purity, tremendous ripeness and amazing richness with very tingly acidity. I will be buying some of this for my cellar. Tremendous wine and killer value. Finish just sits and sits in your mouth.
'03 Seriger Herrenberg Auslese GK - An '03 here I did not care for. Suffered from typical '03 syndrome. Overblown, too much botrytis, some weird tree-wood flavors, so ripe it borders on weird and a diffuse finish.
'98 Serriger Wurtzberg Eiswein - This is more like it. Minty nose with hints of chlorophyl and red fruits. Great acidity and a velvety texture. Very rich and ripe with tons of wet earth and jellied yet crystalline flavors. The long finish really sneaks up on you.
'03 Serrig Herrenberg Riesling Berenauslese - I was not nuts about this '03 either. Tons of botrytis but that diffused finish where everything just kind of falls apart and becomes less focused.
'03 Serrig Wurtzberg Riesling Berenauslese - This was much better than the Herrenberg and had rich, complex botryized fruit flavors and tremendous grip and very nice acids. The fruit is amazing and pure and you can see see the positive side of '03 here. Dense.
'76 Serrig Wurtzberg Trockenberenauslese - One of the wines of the trip here. This was just nuts. Nose of orange blossoms, cherry liquor, candied red fruits, a panoply of spice (tea, clove, cinnamon, huge saffron) and some cooling mineral tones. Just an amazing nose. Truly transcendental. The palate was fascinating. Had a bitter (think saffron) yet strikingly complex and rich flavors with unreal density and spice. The vividness of the flavor was remarkable. Every little dot of liquid had the flavor of the whole bit that was in your mouth. Viscous and cherry-pie like on the finish. The combination of purity and viscosity was unlike anything I have tasted before. So the lesson learned...is let those TBA's rest. Another four star wine.
'03 Serrig Wurtzberg Trockenberenauslese - Rudi thinks this was better than the '76 and will eventually turn out to be one of the best ever for Bert. It has yet to be determined. This was pretty great wine though. Just huge botrytis and an almost solid-like impression in the mouth with just enough acidity to keep this monster framed in your mouth. Enormously concentrated and this wine hurt my teeth. Awesome. Check back in thirty years.
A great marathon tasting at Bert Simon with 24 wines and alot of great chatter. Lots of fun and I am very curious what the future of this estate will be.
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