St Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Eiswein A P #21

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：1721

Nik Weis elected to bottle his estate’s 2008 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Eiswein A.P. #21 – harvested December 30 – rather than hold out for an eventual blend with the results of a week-later picking that had only managed to reach 3% alcohol as of late September, 2009! Intense aromas of dried apricot, orange blossom, honey, and Chartreuse-like herbal elixir lead to a bright, slightly sharp, and remarkably (relatively) un-sweet palate. There is a sweaty, smoky, saline aura suggesting a certain amount of reduction that – like its sheer surfeit of acidity – should settle down with a couple of years in bottle. Fascinating but unruly, ultra-bright and strikingly delicate, this is a wine for gamblers, though I imagine the bet will pay off (or not) within the coming decade. Sankt Urbans-Hof, notes proprietor Nik Weis, experienced a good ten degrees Oechsle difference in 2008 between its ripest Saar fruit – bottled as Spatlese – and that of the Mosel, which reached Auslese level even without stringent selection of botrytis fruit. “We find this a terrific vintage,” remarks Weis – who compares its style with 1998 – “inasmuch as at long last we again have the clear differentiation between Kabinett as it should be, Spatlese, and ennobled Auslese.” Remarkably, there is only a single trocken bottling here this year (from Mehring) which I did not taste and which was destined for the Landhaus Sankt Urban restaurant of Weis’s sister and brother-in-law.Importer: H. B. Wine Merchants, New York, NY; tel. (917)-402-0456