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

GAD-010 2003 Dhronhofberger Sängerei Riesling
Funny story here: the fermentation stopped at 40 grams per liter and he wanted it dry.
What to do? He hates to manipulate-did nothing with his 2003s, no acidification. We all
tasted it, we all loved it, we all said “Please, do nothing to this wine; it’s perfect!” And
so it is offered provided the fermentation didn’t resume! What I tasted was fine-grained
and racy; it tastes dry, and it’s articulate and full of terroir. As-is, I’d say:
SOMMELIER ALERT!
SOS: 1 (between six and eighteen years)
GAD-012 2004 “Hofberg” Riesling Spätlese ++
The best wine from here since the `01s; mass and complexity and wonderful density
and depth—in short, authority—a wine that looks for all the right things, the imprint
of the soil, the true fruit and not merely its pastiche, and a Whole that includes every
scintilla of flavor, presented to the great big world that makes it possible. Astonishing
wine you should absolutely not miss.
SOS: 1 (between eight and twenty-five years)
SOMMELIER ALERT!
GAD-014 2005 “Hofberg” Riesling Spätlese +
This is Adam: it’s his wine as archetype. The nose is ur-Mosel. The quality of fruit is
piercingly brilliant, and the underlying herbal and sweet-lees flavors pull the palate
around like a team of dray-horses. Clean salty botrytis (at 105 Oechsle), a thoroughly
lovely wine.
SOS: 3 (9-23 years)
GAD-017 2004 “Hofberg” Riesling (Feinherb) +
First offering. I tasted this after the `05 BA and it’s still perfectly balanced; ripe (12%),
snappy, verbena-drenched Riesling of lusty vitality and ruddy good health; it has penetration,
richness and lovely slatey complexity; essentially perfect Riesling.
SOS: 0 (now to 3 years, again 9-14 years)
GAD-015 2005 “Hofberg” Riesling Auslese “Goldkapsel” +(+)
Smells eerily like a young `71; dark aromas and also lavender and iris; 125 Oechsle, it’s
really a magma of young big Mosel; not showing all its cards, but what a primordial
mass of slate, salts and fruit. It’s like a 747; gigantic but it can glide. The sweetness is
sucked into the mass of vinosity.
SOS: 3 (15-35 years)
GAD-016H 2005 “Hofberg” Riesling BA, 12/375ml ++
“I had to go out and buy a small basket-press to make this wine,” he said. It has the
smell I call “marigold”. With all its botrytis this remains a clear portrait of Mosel-fruit
and the finish is like a honey you fined with slate. A mere 180 Oechsle, by the way.
There’s the sublime fruit of a `75 but the amber-weight of `71.
SOS: 4 (20-45 years)
73
MOSEL WINES