2013 Riesling St Nikolaus Grosses Gewachs

After 17 months in traditional 1,200- and 2,400-liter barrels, the white-golden colored 2013 Sankt Nikolaus Riesling trocken Grosse Lage has a beautifully intense and precise, yet very fine and spicy, deep, complex, highly attractive and aromatic bouquet -- indicating a great, great Riesling. Highly elegant and beautifully balanced on the palate, this is a powerful and enormously salty wine of great expression and length; it is concentrated and dense in its fruit expression and perfectly interwoven with the refreshing, salty, mineral flavors. There is also a remarkable finesse and elegance here, and the finish seems to be endless and reveals a great finesse, piquancy and salinity. Compared to the sibling from the Doosberg, the Sankt Nikolaus is much fresher, younger, more transparent and finesse-full; whereas the Doosberg is rich, powerful and rather monolithic at least at this stadium. Please mind that the Sankt Nikolaus was bottled six months later than the Doosberg due to the long fermentation. The wine was still at nine grams of residual sugar when the Dossberg was bottled. Both great personalities to be cellared by any Riesling freak. I have never tasted a Sankt Nikolaus with such a finesse and transparency.