Alfred Merkelbach "Üerziger Würzgarten" 2021 Riesling Kabinett Mosel

750ml bottle

8% abv

A hint of reduction and petrol on the nose. The palate shows red apple peel and flesh, salinity, and gentle clementine sweetness.

"This is amazingly good and really entirely perfect. Each piece is where it should be, every element of balance and interplay is precise and easeful, and it is pure Würzgarten. If you were leading a seminar on Mosel Grand Crus you could – should! – use this as the very paradigm for this site.

"It is also a great triumph for the ’21 Mosel vintage, a wine with none of the issues that plague the crop. Acidity, while brisk, is balanced. Sweetness is as good as invisible. Finish is maybe a little bracing, but within bounds. And the overall effect is seamless and complex.

"It’s passionately introverted, and will shrink into itself if there are lots of clamorous wines around it. Could you see it accurately in a “big tasting?” I can’t fathom how. But put a little gray around it, and watch as its own gaudy colors shine through.

"Yet as much as this is one of those “no need to say much” wines (as it explains itself so well), I have an image-tone. If you cook meat sous-vide you probably do a last-minute sear to caramelize the surface, and if you think of that – the melting purity of the interior with the snappy crunch of the exterior – you’ll understand something of the physical tactile life of a wine like this one."
 – Terry Theise