2014 Saarburg RAUSCH Riesling Grosses Gewächs Q.b.A. trocken

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The top selection of old vines make up the 2014 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Trocken GG, which opens with lemon-fresh, ripe and concentrated fruit and delicate slate aromas. There is more purity and freshness on the nose here than on the Saarburger old vines. Pretty rich and piquant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, complex and well structured Riesling with power and intensity, but a moderate alcohol level of 11.5%. Very expressive and with great aging potential. It should be aged for another 6-7 years. - Stephan Reinhardt, März 2016

Vinous: At 11.5% alcohol this retains a welcome share of the buoyancy that helped render its “Alte Reben” counterpart so delightful. But there is pith with nut and appleseed piquancy, stoniness and a more pungent smokiness here, for an overall impression more austere and less juicy or charming, though apple and lime are very much in evidence. This boasts a finish so palpably extract-rich you have to chew on it, and a smoky, sweaty, saline mineral alliance that stimulates the salivary glands. This is more formidable than fun to drink right now, which given the genre Grosses Gewächs I tend to think is by design. As for my conservative prognosis of ageworthiness, I’ll let the wine try to prove me wrong and be happy if it does. There are an extra thousand liters of this compared to the usual volume, because the fuder earmarked for a legally halbtrocken “Diabas” bottling had other ideas and proceeded to ferment down to legal dryness. - David Schildknecht, Jul. 2016