Vinoculation

Well, sort of - a weekend in is bliss at the moment with my day job just being insane.  Here’s what we drank with some tasty home meals of fish on Friday and pork on Saturday.

1993 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Spatlese

This must have been searing and hard to approach in its youth – unless it has stood still for 18 years! This has the same lemon juice and slightly unripe passionfruit as previous bottles, The acid is still mighty in proportion although softening, and a vanilla and a limey petroleum element rides through to the finish which appears quite dry and is beginning to fall away slightly. Classic aperitif - mouthwatering profile and some lovely flavours.

2005 Selbach Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese

This still has a lot of weight for Spatlese - this has been a trait of some recent Selbach Osters. Lightly honeyed grapefruit, ripe orange, pith, apricot and ribena. Plenty of energy here in a creaming soda way, with the first touches of petroleum on the finish and also a botrytis element as the wine warms. Still has some years in it, although it may not improve much further from the tasty plateau it is on now. Has an odd mid palate hole and not great length about it – but forget that, just drink it with a ginger and garlic rubbed piece of pork. We did, and enjoyed it very much.

2005 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Auslese #5

Is it a godlkapsel or isnt it? My guess is no based on the palate. Needs quite a bit of airtime to strut its stuff, which is lemon, lime and paw-paw tells of nice ripe fruit but not much botrytis involved. Full of drive and energy this is light on its feet with some green apple acid driving this on and on. Length to burn, this is a real pleasure to drink, and will be for many years yet. Leave them alone to rest a few more years.

Cheers

Andrew