1976 Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim Niersteiner Rehbach Riesling Auslese
Weingut Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim 1976er Niersteiner Rehbach Riesling Auslese, AP 4 382 093 22 77, 9 pabv; 350 mL, imported by Washington Wholesale Liquor Co., Inc., Washington, DC 20018. Tartrate crystals evident. A quite vivid, limpid, polished, very optically dense green-orange. Very smoky, with notes of orange, gasoline, lanolin, and dried chanterelles. Relatively sweeter at this point than I expected it to be, as at this age such wines have often ‘dried up’, and with a nicely integrated, mouthwatering acidity. A touch of melon, with lots of orange peel and lemon/lime notes, with a segway into a neat cinnamon-cookie-dough impression. Plenty of tannin and other skin tang, tactile as well as affecting taste. However, very light and mobile in the mouth and inviting an almost ‘gulp me’ approach; this wine has a neat seamlessness to it, without being especially complex or profound. Good, lavender-tinged, mid-length finish, with a tiny hint of quinine. At its peak; Drink soon. A relatively low-botrytis ’76er. This is a wine from the iron-laden, volcanic ‘Red Wall’ (Roter Hang) that overlooks the Rhine river near Worms, and forms the absolute height of quality in Rheinhessen vineyards. It shows off its vineyard terroir in being relatively broad, soft, and winey, and in the larger repertoire of scents and flavors unavailable to the more floral and tense Mosel wines made in slate soil–especially in the more prominent and bitterish skin tones. Most of these flavors and scents are what Riesling aficionados call ‘tertiaries’. They follow the fresh-fruity ‘primaries’ and the muted, gasoline-dominated ‘secondaries’ that an adolescent Riesling is full of. Served with a whipped-caramel icing chocolate cake and lots of Graeter’s Vanilla Ice Cream. While Graeter’s is not everything I was told that ice cream could be, it still makes considerable vanilla, even though it’d be better off without the stabilizer gums. It’s nicely dense because it’s made in French pots and has almost no air whipped into it. It went very nicely with the wine. Strangely, everyone seems to ignore the vanilla and goes on to the highly colored and flavored ice creams, which to me seem to miss the point of ice cream altogether, but that’s neither here nor there. Bee Bee’s Wines in Warren, MI has some bottles of the TBA of this exact estate and vineyard for a mere $250/750 mL. Or did have. (91 pts.) – Tasted 2/5/2005.
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