German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

MITTELRHEIN WINES
94
jost at a glance:
Primo estate with impeccable reputation for top-flight
Rieslings. Wines emphasize beauty of fruit rather than mineral.
It is the quality of fruit you look for here, and this is
how the wines taste:
about as lovely as it gets; a delicate melange of sweetapple,
white peach, honeysuckle, expressed in a resplendent elegance, always stopping
short of mere sultriness.
GTJ-062 2005 Bacharacher Riesling Spätlese Feinherb
Unusually for Jost, this wine is all mineral; dry but gently so; a fine dark slatiness,
birchy and burning-leaf; it has 16.2g.l. RS and is a little snappy at the very end, but the
attack and middle are so sinewy and dense the wine works, especially for those who
enjoy a dramatically mineral profile.
SOS: minus-1 (now- 3 years, again 9-12 years)
GTJ-064 2005 Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spätlese
As often with this Rheingau wine there’s a sort of cherry-tobacco and earthy note; the
`02 adds lime and empire apple; lovely lush fruit with a solid earth & stone note which
most tasters will like and a few will read as “sour”; count me among those delighted
with its balsam barky charm.
SOS: 2 (7-18 years)
GTJ-063 2005 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Kabinett +
The 2nd year of drip-irrigation in this famously dry site, and a serene harvest “without
stress, and plenty of time to select,” said Peter. A gorgeous fragrance of cox-orange, nectarine
and mineral dust; seems drier than usual (I’ll bet it isn’t) thanks to its leesy-mineral
mass; a great swirl of green (herbs and balsam) and yellow (nectarines, roses); endless
spicy length and a lashing snap of slate on the finish.
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (8-22 years)
GTJ-065 2005 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Spätlese
Take the Kabinett and add a spoonful of Tasmanian leatherwood honey, a dash of malt
and a slim square of milk-chocolate — even a bit of cardamom and ginger et voila: you
have it. Of course “it” is merely my string of associations, and your antic self might say
“Ecuadoran tobacco, turbinado sugar cubes and kielbasa,” and the punters will decide
which of us is right, or more pathetic. But there are certain honeys where you can smell
the meadows and the fields, and this wine is like that.
SOS: 2 (9-24 years)