2017 Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Spatlese
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Tasting notes
Honey, lime, ginger, coriander leaf with a long finish that defines elegance: persistent but not pushy, with flavours that change as they fade. Slatiness too. What an absolute pleasure. (RH)
Critic scores
Average Score
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
On the nose, pure ripe white peach is brightly laced with fresh lime and appealingly accented by thyme and tarragon. The palate impression is correspondingly succulent, animating and multifaceted, with stony underpinnings clearly discernible on a vibrantly, soaringly buoyant, coolingly herbal and consummately refreshing finish. (Just as in vintage 2016, there is no auction bottling of Abtsberg Spätlese to correspond with the auctioned Kabinett.)
The 2017 Maximin Grünhaus Abtsberg Riesling Spätlese offers a generous yet clear and mineral bouquet with pastry and lemon aromas on the clear and generous yet elegant and terroir-driven nose. The attack on the palate is pretty piquant, crystalline and racy, while the mid-palate round and textured, followed by a lingering, crystalline and salty-piquant finish.
Smoky. Green. Thick evening perfume of jasmine. And then cold stones and matcha tea and structure and this is a glorious, reverberating, Spätlese finishing dry and fine and stony. Lime syrup and green-apple compote. (TC)