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

Up-and-comer the past few years, making more
kruger-rumpf at a glance:
glamorous wines than ever before. Deft, appley
and minerally wines from the greatest sites of the lower Nahe. Priced quite reasonably
for blue-chip quality.
They’re as sturdy as before but there’s more flesh on the
how the wines taste:
bones. There’s more mineral density, more complexity of
texture, and they are invariably site-specific: The PITTERSBERGS are still nutty and
slatey, the DAUTENPFLÄNZERS are still complex and multi-faceted, with all the intricacies
of real Grand Cru style, but the fabric is finer now. You know the hoary old truism
about Nahe wines being a cross between Mosel and Rheingau? When you taste
these you’ll see the truth behind the cliché.
GKF-093 2004 Münsterer Rheinberg Riesling Kabinett +
CORE-LIST WINE. Very mineral this year, seriously textured and long, less of the
bursting-fruit and more of the nubby chalky-slatey texture; like many `04s the mineral
is carried on foamy waves of juiciness. The 50 g.l. sweetness might as well be 20, it’s so
engulfed by extract. Often this wine has been my German Riesling poster-child (This is
German Riesling, I say) and I’m sure I’ll do it again with this archetypal `04.
SOS: 2 (between four and eighteen years)
GKF-104 2005 Münsterer Rheinberg Riesling Kabinett +
CORE-LIST WINE. And boy am I glad. This Rheingau-like quartzite vineyard (making
wines keenly similar to Rüdesheimer Berg Roseneck) is fast becoming a must-have in
my household; this wine was perfect just as it was, no blending or dosage required; a
beaming, friendly nose of iris and cherry; the palate so deftly balances mineral, spice
and apple it seems ordained to exist in precisely this configuration; just a glowing
potion of cox-orange. Does it get any yummier?
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS:2 (6-19 years)
GKF-107 2005 Pittersberg Riesling “Grosses Gewächs”
The most probing and interesting of the dry wines, with Pittersberg’s usual nutty-slatey
notes paired with the vintage’s powdery mineral density and grape-hyacinth aromas.
Palate is salty, juicy and balanced; made me think of a Grasberg Grand Cru from
Kientzler.
SOS: 0 (now 3 years, again 11-14 years)
GKF-100 2005 Münsterer Pittersberg Riesling Kabinett +
Do you perhaps glean an editoral comment whereby the almighty Grosses Gewächs
doesn’t receive a plus and the piddling little residually sweet Kabinett does? Well, I’m
just a humble country wine merchant with no axe to grind, and they’re both very good
wines. This lil’ fella (with 93º) is smooth and elegant; a pure gray-slate fragrance like a
lower Mosel wine; the palate is serious, densely mineral, very long; real Grand Cru
stature and endless interplay of mutsu-apple, lilac and slate nuances. I hardly “needed”
another Kabinett but the wine was too exciting!
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (6-21 years)
GKF-103 2005 Scheurebe Kabinett
a.k.a. Münsterer Dautenpflänzer, or in the lingua fraca of Grosses Gewächs,
“Dautenpflänzer”, but in either case the Cru name dare not be used for such tommyrot
as Scheu. Poo on them. This is a monstrously spicy Scheu, utter cassis and sage and
spearmint and wintergreen and pineapple and pickled ginger; it’s feral, dense and
zingy, with a writhing feline vitality.
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS:1 (now - 8 years)
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NAHE WINES