Description

From fruit picked into November and representing, notes director Christian Witte, a good volume by his estates already sizeable standards, the 2009 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Spatlese (nicknamed “Grunlack”) represents a resounding success of the sort on which I am delighted to report from this address. Ripe, juicy pineapple and quince are mingled with mint and toasted pine nuts on an alluringly creamy palate, and the lush, saliva-inducing performance here concludes with admirable sense of transparency to stony and saline nuances as well as with hints of cherry and cherry pit piquancy. The sweetness could scarcely be better-judged: enough to enhance the wines sense of intensely ripe fruit yet not enough to engender any superficial or sticky sucrosity. This lovely picture of Rheingau elegance ought to be well worth following for at least two decades, and heres hoping it turns out to represent a return to the 30- and more year residually sweet Spatlesen that were being rendered here in top vintages of the 1970s and before.