Close Classic Comparison

It is always instructive to serve wines together.  If you can get all the factors bar one to be identical, then conclusions become even more complete.  It was a get together and dinner, and SWMBO and I pulled one wine out of the cellar.  It was something we liked very much from tastings and have had a few bottles already.  Jol-Vino brought along something that she loved and believed we’d like too.  It was a case of ‘snap’.  The two wines were separated by producer and vintage, but came from the same vineyard and to a similar level of richness.  The producer and vintage alone were enough to make the wines significantly different however to make the true classic comparison.

First up was the 2012 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese.  Sealed with ‘Vino-Lok’.  A gorgeous wine in its own right with some yellow colour and golden hints.  Quite broad and voluminous, and soft on bouquet.  Rich and medium-sweet plus on palate. With lime fruit, florals and plenty of honey.  Broad, rounded and mouthfilling, the sugar a little more prominent.  Softer acidity, and just a little savoury complexity, more so from bottle-age than reduction, so nuances of toast. 

Then onto the 2010 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnuhr Riesling Spatlese.  Pale in colour, and with some noticeable flinty, minerally reduction.  But underneath and blossoming came the pristine clarity of limes and florals laced with steely minerals.  You could smell the fresh acidity.  On palate a reflection of the bouquet.  Absolute precision with fine acid cut to balance the considerable richness and sweetness.  The knife-edge poise meant it drew you in for continued sipping.  Again a little flinty reduction, but this demonstrated terroir.  The former wine demonstrated house style.  The latter wine also showed the vintage with its razor acids.  This was the winner on the night.