Drinking the 1999 Markus Molitor Graacher Himmelreich Auslese Riesling
I really like Riesling.
As a kid growing up in Washington State with a German mother, I got to try Riesling once in a while, but I never cared for it too much. It seemed too dry at the time, but that’s probably because I was too busy eating Tootsie Roll lollipops to consider any wine “sweet.” So I didn’t give Riesling too much thought until a year or two ago. And then I had a 1998 Riesling Spatlese in Helsinki that blew my mind. It was more like an Auslese, and it tasted insanely good with King flounder. That reminds me, I need to get back to that hotel again someday.
Anyway, I like Riesling now, so I am trying to learn a bit more about the varietal and its historic locations in Germany. The place to start may well be the Mosel region, formerly known as the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region because of the Moselle River and its tributaries, the Saar and Ruwer. This region, as of August 1 2007, Auslese Riesling at European Vine Selections (EVS) recently. They had these smaller bottles on sale for $24, marked down from $40. Nice! I wanted to give this sweet wine a try, and a half-bottle is a great way to do so. Plus, at 40% off, why not? I also knew that the 1998 vintage was great, but I didn’t know about the 1999 vintage when I was at EVS. Later on, I found this vintage report, which attests to the interesting 1999 harvest and growing season.
Here are my notes on this wine:
- Aroma: Very faint bouquet of peach, honeycomb, and lemon; not much aroma to speak of, but the color of the wine is a promising golden yellow.
- Flavor: Strong minerality on the tip of the tongue, honey and apple as the minerals subside; sweet, smooth, I want more!
- General impression: Wow! Dynamite minerality, very smooth, delicious dessert-style Riesling. Extremely smooth and fairly sweet. Very nice.
Clearly this wine is good stuff. I don’t have any more of it, which might be fortunate because it’s hard to stop drinking this wine once you open the half-bottle….