The long, hard-to-pronounce terminology crowding the typical German wine label can be off-putting to the uninitiated, but I implore you to look past all that, pull this cork, and pour. This goes well past “white wine” and into “magical elixir” territory. It’s 14-year-old liquid lightning from an impeccable producer in the Nahe, packed full of everything a classic German spätlese promises: (1) crystalline minerality; (2) staggeringly ripe, sun-drenched fruit; and (3) maximum levels of thirst-quenching acidity.
The meticulous Harald Hexamer farms 7.5 hectares of vines in the acclaimed “Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg”—that’s the Rheingrafenberg vineyard in the village of Meddersheim, a characteristically steep slope of red slate and quartz known for producing intensely concentrated Riesling grapes. I probably don’t need to say this, but the price for this succulent, masterful ’09 is just nuts. Do not hesitate on Hexamer!
You’ll notice an asterisk after the word “spätlese” on the label: It’s a tipoff from Hexamer that this is an exceptionally concentrated example of spätlese, one that’s in fact leaning in the auslese direction in terms of its residual sugar content. For my purposes, I’m treating the asterisk as a gold star, a badge of honor for a wine that displays a masterful interplay of sweetness and piano-wire tension. It is at once dense and electric, something only the best examples of German Riesling manage to pull off. A wide range of “secondary” Riesling aromas and flavors have begun to develop as the wine nears a decade of age, and yet it would be hard to peg this as a 14-year-old wine blind—it’s incredibly fresh.
Rheingrafenberg is southeast-facing, with a 55-degree gradient, and is known for producing very small-berried grapes. The saturated fruit in this steel-aged 2009 is on glorious display: Shining a deep yellow-gold in the glass, it explodes with aromas of ripe, juicy peach, mango, endless yellow tropical fruits, candied lime zest, honeysuckle and orange blossoms. These fruit sensations interplay with scents of white flowers, honey, and lots of “petrol.” It is a truly rare and mesmerizing combination of opulent richness and mineral/acid nerve, and it’ll make a captivating partner with the attached recipe for Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad. Serve it on the cooler side (45 degrees) to tame the (extremely well-balanced) sweetness. Is there any better deal in wine than well-aged German Riesling? I don’t think so!
