Welcome to the world of over the hill German wine. The wine in question was the 1993 Karthauserhof Spatlese Trocken. Really nice nose that actually got better as the night went on. Spearmint, citronella, citrus, mineral, lime and wet earth. The palate had screeching acidity and freshness but no fruit. A little bit of tangerine oil like fruit made itself known but it was more like baby aspirin tangerine oil form flavors. Like some flavors from a molecular gastronomist's nightmare. I have some left for tonight but I am not holding much hope out. Guess I should drink my Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Trocken wines on the younger side. I just needed to see how this would last. 1993 was also a great vintage for Karthauuserhof's next door neighbor, Von Schubert so I thought this would be great. How wrong I was. Maybe they need to be more ripe as in Auslese to successfully age more. I will experiment more and report back as I have a whole ass-load of trocken wine in the cellar. Most of it is relatively young so maybe 15 years is pushing it? Who knows but learning is half the battle.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
When there is no more fruit but plenty of acidity
Welcome to the world of over the hill German wine. The wine in question was the 1993 Karthauserhof Spatlese Trocken. Really nice nose that actually got better as the night went on. Spearmint, citronella, citrus, mineral, lime and wet earth. The palate had screeching acidity and freshness but no fruit. A little bit of tangerine oil like fruit made itself known but it was more like baby aspirin tangerine oil form flavors. Like some flavors from a molecular gastronomist's nightmare. I have some left for tonight but I am not holding much hope out. Guess I should drink my Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Trocken wines on the younger side. I just needed to see how this would last. 1993 was also a great vintage for Karthauuserhof's next door neighbor, Von Schubert so I thought this would be great. How wrong I was. Maybe they need to be more ripe as in Auslese to successfully age more. I will experiment more and report back as I have a whole ass-load of trocken wine in the cellar. Most of it is relatively young so maybe 15 years is pushing it? Who knows but learning is half the battle.
Lyle:
ReplyDeleteInteresting note. A few years ago I had a bottle of Karthauserhof Auslese "Trocken S" at about seven years of age. It was very nice but seemed fairly mature. Perhaps the added hang-time for the auslese helped.
Mike Klein
I think the jury is still out on the aging potential of German trockens; and I'd guess we all should prepare for surprises in the years ahead....
ReplyDeleteLyle.
ReplyDeleteMy father lives in Bad Kreuznach an der Nahe (which is where I hail from, as well) and he has been drinking trocken Riesling (and Sylvaner etc) for decades. His opinion on the issue of ageing trocken Riesling is to drink them within the first 2-3 years after release to still get the fruit while it's there. Sweet Riesling is different, but on the trockens, ageing may not add anything.
SP
Bummer to hear that's already OTH. The regular '79 Auslese was amazingly fresh not so long ago.
ReplyDeleteCliff
Yes,
ReplyDeleteThat 1979 Auslese was lovely. The jury is definetly out and if I have to drink some of these wines OTH in the name of science then I will. Science is just as much about failure as it is success.
I have a few Karthauserhof 99 Spatlese and the fruit is shot.
ReplyDeleteThe gamble is in trying to drink Mosel trockens from the early '90s at 15 years of age. The trocken culture was, until very recently, way ahead of the trocken winemaking.
ReplyDeleteThere's plenty of trockens now that will go the distance, though not many are from the Mosel.
Learning is all the fun. Cool note.
ReplyDelete