Hanno Zilliken lives in a very unassuming almost modern looking house compared to many of the growers we visited. But under his house Hanno has one of the most incredible ancient cellars you will ever visit. Incredibe funk and mold grows from every part of the ceiling and the wall. Eerily fascinating images and Hanno shows no fear in touching the green fluffy mold. Hanno is like a proud father with his '05's and he has every right to be. They are the real deal. An absolutely startling collection.
'05 Butterfly - Very chalky mineral wine with great purity and the sensation of chewing minerals on the palate.
'05 Estate Riesling - Another nose that is a pefect balance between chalk and ripe fruit. Lacey palate with strong acids and a smokey minerality.
'01 Saarburger Rausch Kabinett - Closed nose with just a hint of minerality. Kinf of dull and uninspiring on the palate with lowish but adequate acidity. Okay but nothing special.
'02 Saarburger Rausch Kabinett - This was either completely closed or getting to that over the hill point. Really just not giving much except lime blossom on the nose and some steely minerality on the palate. I hope it's closed as I have two in the cellar.
'03 Saarburger Rausch Kabinett - Nose of sugar snap peas and ripe, exotic tropical fruit. Definetly a victim of '03. Flabby and diffuse.
'04 Saarburger Rausch Kabinett - Wonderfully bright nose with mineral and great sweet/sour interplay. Very ripe with excellent racy fruit and nice cut. The best Kabinett of the mini-vertical.
'92 Saarburger Rausch Spatlese - Excellent nose of steel, lime blossoms and a touch of petrol. Incredibly minerally palate with powdery fruit and ripe acids. Excellent mature Spatlese.
'92 Saarburger Rausch Spatlese (Auction) - What a nose of chalk, ripe lemons/limes/tropical fruit and minerals. Complete palate of ripe intense fruit, complexity, concentration and astounding length. No wonder this went to auction. Huge step up from the non-auction bottling.
'03 Ockefener Bockstein Spatlese - Ripe and fat and nice pleasant wine but slightly diffuse. Just ok.
'05 Saarburgere Rausch Spatlese - The perfect Saar Spatlese. That is all you need to know. This wine is just so silky with that beautiful tension between sweet and sour. Impressive concentration and a haunting texture. Just so darn impressive you cannot beleive it. Amazing length.
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese - Tropical, ripe nose that is overflowing out of the glass. Notes of sweet greens. Maybe nettles and bok choy. Really aromatic. Sweet and dense palate with incredible concentration and length. Not showing much botrytis. That was saved for the following wines.
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese (Auction) - A huge step up from the regular Auslese. Lime candy and cotton candy on the nose and an incredibly concentrated palate that is candied but has amazing acidity to slap you silly on the finish. Goes on and on. Stunning.
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese GK - Intensely floral nose with aromas of dried fruits and concentrated minerality. Palate is slightly honyed but with a whiplash of acidity and again incredible concentration. Dark and dense wine with a long future ahead of it in the cellar. Really incredible acidity and the acidity stands out for a wine that has so much sweet concentrated fruit. Only in Germany!
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese GK (Auction) - Can it get any better? Oh yes it can. Incredible panoply of floral and pulpy stone fruits on the nose plus an amuse of botrtytis. But such clean and refined botrytis. On the palate this wine is dense but at the same time so tangy and ripe. Long resounding crescendo of a finish.
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese LGK - Just a genius bottle of wine here. More refined than the previos two with more botrytis. But that clean and silky, well-defined botrytis. More of everything. Concentration, density, exotic fruits and purity. Zilliken's high end Pradikat wines in '05 are really something to behold. So many of them too! A four star out of three star wine!
'05 Saarburger Rausch Auslese LGK (Auction) - Mineral, floral nose with candied aromas and clean botryized fruit. Extremely viscous and concentrated on the palate with candied floral notes and tangy, rich tropical fruit. This wine is so crystalline clear and pure you just shake your head. Brilliant. I don't know..five stars out of three.....
'05 Saarburger Rausch Berenauslese - Really structured Berenauslese here with huge fruit and tangy acids and a massive palate with a velvety mouthfeel. Absolutely stunning but is it a crime to say I liked the LGKA (Auction) bottling better?
'05 Saarburger Rausch Trockenberenauslese - This will be the first bottle of TBA that I will buy in my life and probably the last. The third time I have tasted this and I HAVE to have this wine. 14.9 grams per liter of acidity and alot of sugar to boot. So clean and precise with such spine-tingling acidity married with such unctous fruit you cannot believe it. Long, mouthfuilling, viscous and neverending...this is just shocking liquid. Cannot wait to pull this out in thirty years. Wow!! My notes just say Huh!!!!???!!!
Hanno hit it out of the park in '05 and he knows it.
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