J.J. Prum Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett 2017
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Wine & Spirits
The first sip of this wine was like getting a smack for having opened it so soon. The acidity is sharp and unforgiving against the stony flavors; the tautness of the structure gives the wine the snap of a rubber band. But that’s a good sign: Clearly, this wine has something to protect—like the pristinely ripe, clean fruit it eventually reveals in scents of Meyer lemons and tart gooseberries, green pears and tangy pineapple. Pulled from old vines, most of them on their own roots, and vinified in stainless steel with ambient yeasts, it’s regal and restrained. In keeping with JJ Prüm’s age-worthy style, this is set to develop well over the next decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett offers a clear, bright, fresh and flinty bouquet with nice reduction. On the palate, the wine is light, lush, piquant, fresh and salty, with grip, tension and spring-like clarity and freshness. A gorgeous, highly stimulating Kabinett. Tasted in March 2019.
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Wine Enthusiast
Faithful to the producer's classic style, prominent notes of smoke and flint introduce this wine. With patience and aeration, it opens to reveal pretty notes of lemon and lime along with juicy, concentrated flavors of white grapefruit, honey and hibiscus nectar. It's a complex, deeply concentrated wine that pulsates with acidity and minerality. Hold till at least 2022, but it will reward cellaring well through 2030.
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Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.