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Sunday, November 25, 2018

2017 Hofgut Falkenstein Krettnacher Euchariusberg Riesling Spätlese

I am way too much of Mosel novice to offer an adequate appraisal of this wine, so I'll let The Mosel Report provide some background...

Cracked this puppy too young, but , holy smokes what a stunner !🥂 There is some kind of feinherb thing in the piquant nose that is fascinating.  Incredibly savory salinity on the palate,  yet overall remarkably balanced at this youthful stage...

-------(sourced below from The Mosel Report )------
2017er Falkenstein Krettnacher Euchariusberg Riesling Spätlese
 AP 06 18  
rating  95 pts 

The 2017er Euchariusberg Spätlese (known internally as the “Klaus Lang” cask) comes from fruit harvested at 92° Oechsle in the prime Gross Schock sector of the vineyard and was fermented down to 65 g/l of residual sugar. This offers a gorgeous nose of pineapple, apple, coconut, pear and herbs. The wine develops the delicate presence of a light and creamy Auslese on the palate and leaves a comparatively dry and elegant feel in the long finish with almost Kabinett-like focus. This is a stunning Spätlese in the making. 2027-2042 

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Notes from The Mosel Report on Falkenstein in 2017 vintage:

"...The Webers are quite upbeat about their 2017s: “We would have loved to have more wine of this quality. The wines are elegant, with the depth of the 2015s and the acidity of the 2013s. In many ways, they remind me of the 1971s and 1973s in the Saar. While 2016 was dramatic, with much pressure from diseases, the 2017s were easy … except for the late frost at the end of April, which costed us 40% of our yields. Fortunately, the remainder of the season was quite fine. We started our harvest extremely early, on September 23. This sounds like southern Europe but that was how the weather turned out to be. We finished on October 11. The quality of the fruit was great. There was nothing with less than 80° Oechsle. Despite the dramatic losses of yields, we were able to not only produce our usual portfolio, but we even added some casks from newly acquired vineyards and by bottling casks ourselves which we had sold to the trade so far.”  The Estate was able to produce its usual portfolio of wines, with the exception of the Euchariusberg Kabinett AP 13, which was not produced due to low yields. The Estate has added a new vineyard situated in a prime, south-facing part of the Niedermenniger Sonnenberg called im Kleinschock, which delivered a fruity Kabinett in 2017. It also added another cask of Niedermenniger Herrenberg Spätlese Feinherb (AP 23), whose fruit was sold so far to the local cooperative...."

"....What is there to say: We remained speechless in front of such a high quality collection. The wines may not have the ethereal lightness of 2016. The 2017er Falkenstein wines are, as at all Estates, denser. But they retain this utter finesse which has been the hallmark here since a few years now. The dry wines are stunningly pure, the off-dry wines as good as ever, the fruity ones deliciously zesty and the sweet Auslese a little beauty in the making. If we had to hint to “the finest among the finest”, we would draw our readers’ attention to the Estate’s two marvelous fruity Spätlese bottlings. But it would divert their attention from other beauties. Simply put, if you are in the luxury position to buy everything (the Webers told us that they start to get allocation headaches as they can no longer satisfy all demand), then buy everything. The wines are THAT impressive! ..."

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