2015 Schlossgut Diel, Riesling Kabinett, Dorsheimer Goldloch, VDP Grosse Lage, Nahe Germany.
Drier and more complex than a Kabinett should be, not that I’m complaining at all, this 2015 Diel Dorsheimer Goldloch is simply amazing with wonderful purity and a steely mineral driven form, Caroline Diel has done a masterful job of controlling the vintage’s ripeness with this one! Coming from the Grand Cru, VDP Grosse Lage site with it’s gravelly soils and steep eastern facing slopes this stuff is pedigreed Riesling at it’s best showing a more restrained fleshiness than it did in my earlier tasting notes it has developed a fine detail and vitality that is wonderfully energetic, the acidity which had once seemed muted has a brisk character that is giving fantastic class and freshness right now, hiding the sugar and extract to perfection, making this wine feel more like a Trocken or a modern Feinherb, but with food things swing back a bit and you get the generous fruitiness to match up to spicer cuisine. This wine was magic just sipping on a warm evening, and got even better with the Thai noodle take away, showing the marvelous flexibility of Diel’s Kabinett, which like Donnhoff are pure genius and spectacular values. I had the chance to most of Diel’s 2015 in pre-release samples and again at the winery itself in the fall of 2016, and I remember clearly being impressed by every example, but now here today in bottle, in 2018 they are exceptional, and in particular this Goldloch Kabinett, which is really showing the class of Diel’s winemaking and expressing the class of it’s terroir. The nose is mineral charged with lots of stony charm, subtle orchard fruit and flinty spice that leads to a light/medium bodied palate of lime, green apple, apricot and tangy mango fruits plus a touch of minty herb, creamy melon (sugar’s influence is more textural than sweet) along with kiss of dried pineapple and citron. Everything is woven together in a precise fashion and with a sense of grace, I am a huge fan and this wine is easy to love, it also has at least a decade of great drinking ahead if not more.
($30 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive

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