Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Auslese Riesling

2014. Light petrol/rubber interplay, with black lime, lime pith and smoky cherrywood, graphite, underripe pineapple, igneous rock dripping with lemon. Sweet pineapple, lemon essence infused into lemon marmalade and emerging profoundly drier. Lime reduction, candied kalamansa with an ethereal distillation of floral and mystery citrus admixture.



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David at Vinous nailed the tasting notes (tasted 2016):

"A faintly fungal note accents apple jelly, glazed pineapple, candied grapefruit rind and caramel on the nose, leading to a colorfully complex but rather opaque as well as decidedly confectionery palate impression. The finish is forcefully sustained but lacks the primary juiciness and salinity that might have leavened the wine’s sheer thickness and overcome slightly rough and unruly manifestations of botrytis."

TDN is certainly more pronounced now, but the part on botrytis was bang on. The wine could do better with a little less/cleaner bot, but I guess it is a true representation of the vintage - 2014 was marred with bot issues. In the words of Helmut, "this one was picked out from the Spätlese material on a table by my top harvest brigade. We’ve had lovelier Auslesen, but when it’s constantly humid, you get negative infection and can’t expect more than this.” On the bright side, the minerality of the site still shines through and when paired with some baked pears drizzled in honey... Divine 🤤

Apple, lemon, Pear notes. Kerosene. Structure, complexity, and expressive of a good quality Riesling. Dry and robust

Great acidity with honeysuckle aftertaste.

Gina

Andrew had this 9 years ago

Andrew had this 9 years ago

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