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

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...

On Sep 28, 4:04�pm, Salil > wrote:
> 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

Wow, sounds great. David and Laura are nice people.