Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Mosel, Germany

澤巴赫塞爾廷城堡山雷司令遲摘干白葡萄酒

點擊次數：4119

Due to have been bottled soon after I tasted it, the Selbachs’ 2009 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese trocken features ripe pear and apple with hints of litchi and brown spices it seems to have borrowed from some ravishingly ripe Gewurztraminer. But the palate here is all-Riesling in its lime-fruit brightness and saliva-inducing salinity, and all Schlossberg in its peaty and crushed stone smokiness, all of which linger with mouth-watering enticement to take the next sip. Nut oil richness and a silken texture become more evident as the wine warms and takes on air. One of the finest trocken Rieslings in a long line of Selbach-Oster successes in that genre, this is also yet another tribute to the prowess of its great vineyard, for whose grand cru status this family is making an ever-stronger case year-by-year. Certainly it need no longer remain in the shadow of Zeltingen’s Sonnenuhr! “The autumn was super, with little stress,” remarked Johannes Selbach, who is more often seen furrowing his exceedingly high brow when describing even a highly successful harvest! What there was of botrytis, he reports, came late, and he reported that what rain there was in November was of negligible significance. Where many 2009 collections disappointed slightly as they reached the limits of possible vintage Oechsle, the Selbach-Oster collection proceeded from strength to profound strength. Most of the wines were bottled in May, but some of the dry and nobly sweet lots were very late even to finish fermenting and a few had not yet been bottled even when I tasted in September. True to an intention he stated last year, Selbach has bottled without Pradikat the fruits of block-pickings from his three top parcels, each named on its label. (For more about the principles involved, consult in particular my note on the 2005 “Schmitt” Auslese – in issue 169 – and that on this year’s dry “Schmitt” Spatlese below.) This year’s collection continues the trend for wines from Zeltingen’s Schlossberg to shine with special complexity and elegance after the many years in which they seemed destined at this address to take a back seat to those of Sonnenuhr. Not only were the vineyards of Zeltingen among the most celebrated on the Mosel during the 19th and early 20th century, but Karl Heinrich Koch epochal survey of 1881 places the Schlossberg as among the Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer’s top 11 sites, and one can appreciate this while savoring a wine like this year’s “Schmitt” trocken.Importers: There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300