2015 Riesling Zobinger Heiligenstein Alte Reben
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Tasting notes
I tasted the intensely yellow colored 2015 Zöbinger Heiligenstein 1ÖTW Riesling Alte Reben two times this year—in mid-March 2017 in my home office and at the end of June at the domaine. In March, the wine displayed a clear and intense yet refined bouquet of ripe Riesling and white seed fruits intermixed with elegant spicy/earthy and even straw aromas. Full-bodied, firm and mineral on the palate, this is an elegant, beautifully pure, finessed and enormously salty Heiligenstein with good grip and mineral tension in the herbal flavored finish. Great balance and tension here. Very rich and almost sweet in the aftertaste! Huge aging potential! In late June 2017, the wine showed a super intense, rich and concentrated bouquet of ripe but refreshing lemon and lemon confit aromas intermixed with spicy aromas of crushed stones, herbs, dried white fruits and almond aromas, which echoes the warm vintage. Rich, round and powerful on the palate, this is a full-bodied, dense, extract-sweet and tannic yet elegant Riesling that is even pure, fresh and salty in the finish. The finish is long, intense, very warm but also vital, finessed and salty, with a good tannin grip. This is a great wine that needs a decade to shine.
Critic scores
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Floral perfume and cooling herbal aromas suggest an expansive, highly diverse meadow. Luscious peach and seductive inner-mouth perfume saturate the palate in a luxuriant but at the same time bright and energetic performance. A tingling, crystalline mineral shower like that administered in the finish of this year’s “regular” Heiligenstein bottling is invigoratingly augmented by zesty lime, incisive white pepper, pungent struck flint and piquant peach kernel. It should be fascinating to track this wine’s evolution in tandem with that of its younger-vines sibling. For now, the old-vines rendition has the edge in minerality and sheer intensity, but the lift, floral persistence and mouthwatering salinity of the “regular” bottling are irresistible.
Cork closure. Again (ie like his non-Alte Reben Heiligenstein) that lightly reductive approach at first – just a little bit rubbery and smoky – or is it just spontaneous fermentation? But the citrus purity and intensity shines through. Impressive depth here, all so primary but already in balance, just needs time. (JH)