2016 Riesling St Nikolaus Grosses Gewachs
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Riesling Trocken Sankt-Nikolaus "GG" displays a subtle, deep and coolish, intense and delicate mineral bouquet. Rich and powerful but fine and salty-mineral on the palate, this has enormous complexity as well as structure with persistent mineral grip and tension. The hugely persistent and long finish is tightly woven, salty and tensioned yet elegant. This is a great Riesling from terroir that has been unsung and visually unspectacular for a very long time. Tasted in May 2019.
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Average Score
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Pit-inflected purple plum and white peach, zesty grapefruit and lime are announced already in the nose, and then translate into a succulent yet stimulatingly-piquant palate impression. The feel is satiny and flatteringly schmaltzy. Stones, mineral salts and iodine take the finish in a mouthwateringly crustacean- and bivalve-like but in no way austere direction. For a wine of such imposing richness – in significant part a function of 20 months in cask, 14 of those on full lees – the sense of transparency to mineral notes is remarkable. And for a wine whose mineral aspects are so pronounced, there is an amazing depth of ripe fruit flavors. The finish resonates with wave-like repetitiousness on myriad mineral, fruit and animal frequencies. (For background on these old vines and this exceptional but little-known and somehow almost perpetually-breezy site immediately adjacent to the Rhine, consult my reviews of past bottlings.)