2017 Riesling St Nikolaus Grosses Gewachs

The intriguingly pungent nose conjures a seascape of ocean breeze, kelp, oyster shell and driftwood. The glycerol-rich, uncannily thick yet not in the least heavy palate offers a corresponding combination of mouthwatering salinity with a sense of stone and chalk suffusion. If ever there were a wine in which you can palpably detect enormous extract, it’s surely this one. Lime and crab apple serve for invigorating brightness and tartness that belie how long this wine sat on its lees and that it underwent malolactic conversion. The finish, superbly transparent to the myriad mineral impressions that went before, displays enormous resonance and reach, leaving one’s salivary glands pumping. Here is a wine such as I imagine some of the great, age-worthy Rheingau Rieslings of 75 or 100 years ago might have tasted when they were young. And indeed, my prognosis of ageability might prove a ludicrous underestimation.