Schlossgut Diel Scheurebe Spatlese, Nahe, Germany

點擊次數：2964

2010 年的Diel Scheurebe Spatlese，呈橙色，散發著酸橙及粉紅葡萄柚的香氣，并伴有鼠尾草及薄荷的味道，甜度很足，但也很清爽。該酒豪爽而又明快，濃郁的檸檬味，讓人印象深刻，余味帶有清爽的藥草味。適飲期：至少未來 10 年內。

Mint, sage, pink grapefruit, white peach and Persian melon scent and lusciously inform the Diel 2009 Scheurebe Spatlese, a more subtle but even more exciting rendition of this grape than last year’s. Creamy yet almost endlessly refreshing, this elegant, succulent, seductive Scheu moves right up into the Muller-Catoir echelon of quality. Pungent nips of grapefruit rind, sage, and ginger add invigoration. At only 7.5% alcohol, this is feather-light and unapologetically sweet, but represents a really refined, designer-dressed expression of Dr. Scheu’s 94 year-old crossing. I’m betting it will be worth following for at least 15 years. Caroline Diel’s 2009 collection is noteworthy not only for a range of outstanding Riesling such as has long been anticipated (though seldom bettered) at this estate, but also for a set of wines from the Pinot family – all, incidentally, now labeled with French rather than German names for their varieties – that in my estimation mark a significant up-tick in quality. That this estate has been famous in Germany for its work with Pinots ever since Armin Diel assumed charge in 1987 and began barrique vinification, I am of course well aware. But only in recent years have I witnessed tendencies to restrain the influence of new wood and to encourage real subtlety, which seem to me prerequisites for achieving with these varieties anything remotely approaching the class of Schlossgut Diel’s Rieslings. The 2009 Pinots were harvested in mid-October and most of the Rieslings in the two weeks following. The superb botrytis selections were all picked-out ahead of even the Pinots.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

The Diel 2008 Scheurebe Spatlese is outrageously typical of its grape in its intensely pungent aromas of sage flower, catnip, pink grapefruit, and cassis; audaciously sweet on the palate, so that a rather candied citrus and herbal lozenge sensation is engendered; and finishes with the sort of tenacity that “lozenge” portents. If you are both a Scheu-lover and a sweet tooth, you’ll love this, though I’d still be inclined to drink it on its own and within the next 6-8 years. There were only 300 bottles, but virtually all of them came to the U.S. Caroline Diel is taking the reins at her family’s estate, and results in 2008 are as impressive as one would have expected given the track record at this address. The team here did not start harvesting until the third week in October and picked for nearly a month, due to which lateness the measurable acid levels (which were not adjusted) were relatively low by vintage standards, but the impression of acidity was more than vivacious and efficacious enough. On a quest for purity and authenticity, the Diels did not include in their bench trials for the blending of Grosse Gewachse any small lots of off-dry wine such as might in past have been employed expressly to fine-tune the finished levels of residual sugar. Instead, they let the blends all remain quite dry. Armin Diel has for at least the past dozen years championed and cherished the Mosel stylistic ideals of delicacy and of high residual sugar balanced against acidity. His choices of Mosel-born cellar master Martin Franzen (now of Muller-Catoir), and more recently of Moselaner Christoph Friedrich, testify to this proclivity. But there has never been a better vintage in which to give these ideals fluid realization. So if you are a lover of Kabinetts and Spatlesen from the likes of Joh. Jos. Prum, Willi Schaefer, or the Haags, do not miss the show Caroline and Armin Diel have put on this year, and that could be playing in your cellar any night over the next two decades!Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

I was delighted, but also surprised – especially given its showing on the heels of a gold capsule Spatlese – to encounter Diel’s 2004 Scheurebe Spatlese, from a parcel of quarter-century old vines he has acquired in the Holle vineyard. Blueberry and black currant jam aromas and flavors are alluringly tinged by pungent sage oil and botrytis spice and drenched with honey in a long and juicy, almost candied sweet finish. This elixir of Scheurebe would make a formidable – or perhaps an unwelcomingly intense! – aperitif, or you could sit on some bottles for a few years and wait for the sugar to back off. Incidentally, readers with the requisite disposable income are urged to explore Diel’s 2003 T.B.A. (from the Pittermanchen), which was unfortuitously also being bottled the day I visited. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300