Grapelive Tribute to “Summer of Riesling 2011”

By Kerry Winslow

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2010 Weingut Selbach-Oster Riesling “Rotlay” Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, Mosel, Germany.
Johannes Selbach explained to me the craziness of the 2010 vintage and the super high levels of acidity, and the extreme power of the wines, that will show up in time. While the 2009 vintage was near perfect on all levels, almost easy for the winemakers and great for customers, the 2010 will be more intense and especially dry feeling while young, but watch out the higher must weight wines, spatlese and aisles, plus the TBA and Eiswein, will be killers! This maybe the best sweet wine year in many vintages will long lived and balanced wines. Selbach makes a few special cuvees, and the “Rotlay” is one of them, it is an amazingly deep and polished wine, though still firmly framed and ridged at this young stage, with layers of complexity and lush flavors. Sweetly rich, but with bracing acidity giving stunning balance and lift the “Rotlay” shows tropical fruits, green apple, white stone fruit and candied pineapple with crystalline mineral essence and citrus flowers. I love this wine now, and would pair it with Thai or Indian curries or spicy dishes in its youth, but rewards will come to those that cellar this beauty for 5 to 10 years when it really fills out and blossoms, look for slate, petrol fumes and rose oil to slowly unfold and a honey tone to show up over time. This wine has a future that is sure and I should wager a large sum that it will become a classic standing up to some of the best white wines of the world, this is a remarkable Riesling.
($61 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive

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