On 2008-09-28 13:04:03 -0700, Salil > said:

> I visited David and Laura Bueker yesterday for a great dinner and a
> lineup of some stunning wines. Fantastic company, some great north
> Indian paneer, stir-fried vegetables and some grilled chicken kebabs,
> and some incredible wines made for an amazing evening.
>
> The wines:
> 1999 Donnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Kabinett
> Pale yellow-green colour. Youthful apple, pear and lime flavours on
> the nose with hints of smoke and mossy earth. Incredible clarity and
> precision on the palate with bright pear and apple flavours over
> earthy and salty mineral notes. Finishes clean and long. Beautiful and
> delicate, drinking beautifully now but I suspect it'll at least hold
> for a while longer.
>
> 2001 Kurt Darting Ungsteiner Herrenberg Riesling Spatlese
> Served blind by David. The bottle had come straight out of the fridge
> and initially showed some white fruits with a flambeed/burnished
> character and high acidity, leading me to guess a 96 Kabinett. Wrong.
> As the wine warmed up further, botrytised flavours began to emerge
> with lots of flambeed apricot and peach, tropical fruits and brown
> spices dominating the nose and palate (with a little roughness in the
> back). With the very high acidity, I guessed that David had thrown in
> a Rieslaner to throw me off - wrong again. Once it was unveiled and I
> stopped analyzing, a couple of glasses of this went down in almost no
> time. Absolutely delicious.
>
> 2000 Cullen 'Diana Madeline'
> A blend of all 5 red Bdx grapes. Clear dark red colour. The nose
> initially was very floral - with time the cherry and red berry
> flavours intensified with cedar, some spice and eventually leather
> emerging. Medium bodied and elegant on the palate with more bright red
> fruited flavours mingled with cedar, earth and leather, fine grained
> tannins and lively acidity. Clean, long finish. David and I agreed
> this was a wine that could definitely hold its own with a lot of top
> Bordeaux. Absolutely superb, drinking very well (although I imagine
> this will cellar very well for a while longer), and I'm glad to have
> more of this.
>
> 1994 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Auslese
> Wow. This is a wine that defies description. This weaves together
> bright youthful peach, apple and pear fruit, developed smoky - almost
> burnished - flavours and an incredible mineral density with layers of
> earth, stones and salt into a complex, seamless package with the
> texture of silk and an elegance that makes it feel almost weightless.
> The finish is absurdly long. All we could do was laugh and be amazed.
> I approach almost every bottle of Donnhoff's with the highest
> expectations - and this still blew them away. One of the greatest
> wines I have ever had.
>
> 2006 Donnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Auslese
> BA alert! Huge nose with aromas of minerals, rocks, tropical fruits,
> honey and spices soaring from the glass. This has tremendous power and
> richness in the mouth with intense botrytised fruit flavours, lots of
> honey and some apple, peach and mineral flavours underneath. The sheer
> size and weight of this wine is balanced perfectly by blazing acidity
> that keeps this surprisingly light on its feet. The finish goes on and
> on, and probably lasted longer than the bottle itself did - this was
> incredibly delicious even though very primary, and the three of us
> emptied it in no time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Salil
Got my salivary glands going...