Trad Not Rad

With all the buzz about the more radical trocken Rieslings from Germany, many of us have moved away from the older-fashioned, traditional fruit-sweet wines classified under the pradikat system where it’s a Kabinett, Spatlese or Auslese,, or if you ae lucky a Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese.  These ascend in sweetness, and even the Kabinett are markedly sweet.  So nowadays it’s easy to dismiss this system as passé at the Kabinett up to Auslese level, anyway.  However these wines are still delicious in anyone’s terms.

This was proven when The Difficult Man brought along to dinner a 1998 Burklin-Wolf ‘R’ Forster Pechstein Riesling Auslese.  Drinking beautifully now with such gracefulness, yet with the density that the warmth and heavier soils of the Pfalz give, over a region such as the Mosel.  The sweetness wasn’t that obvious, and the wine had a lovely integration which made its richness just merge into a vinous completeness.  Honey, florals and some minerals, all remarkably clear and clean-cut, and absolutely nothing out of place.  There was a time when the three ‘B’s ruled the Pfalz, the other being von Buhl and Bassermann-Jordan.  However others have taken their crown, especially the radicalised trocken makers.  This wine bought it all back.