2016 Oestricher Lenchen Auslese 12 17
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Tasting notes
An intensely fruity but confectionary nose offers glazed pineapple with candied lemon rind and anise. The luscious, glycerol-rich palate introduces quince accompanied by juicy fresh white peach and pineapple. This latter trio of fresh fruits balances the candied elements, with a mouthwatering assist from strikingly briny, savory salinity, leading to a finish of phenomenal intensity and persistence. Its sweetness admirable restrained by the efficacy of hidden acidity and equally-concealed extract. (At just 7% alcohol, it goes without saying the wine appears lightweight.) “This was picked a good four weeks before the corresponding Beerenauslese,” notes Peter Bernhard Kühn, but that B.A. wasn’t brought in until the first days of December, meaning that this Auslese not only reflects some of the vintage’s rare botrytis, but also benefited considerably from 2016’s Big Chill.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Rheingau Riesling Oestrich Lenchen Auslese has a golden-yellow color and offers an intense yet super fine and honey-scented bouquet of ripe and concentrated Riesling and grapefruit aromas along with spicy mineral aromas. Round and generous on the palate with ripe apple flavors, this is a lush, concentrated and highly elegant Auslese with a lovely fruity finish. "Botrytis came very late in 2016," says Peter Bernhard Kühn, who picked the Auslese and Beerenauslese between mid-November and December.
Such a contrast with the Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Auslese. Ripe, honeyed apricots and very very sweet on the palate. Tastes more like a BA than an Auslese. Super-rich and intense, packed with apricot and dried apricot flavours. Stunning. (JH)
An almost overwhelming perfume of violets fires the first salvo at the olfactory engine room, before more conventional aromas of fresh raisins, acacia honey and tropical fruit come to the rescue. The Lenchen Auslese is oozing a rich yet juicy flavour of passion fruit and mango, but balances its generous measure of residual sugar with a fine bitterness of ripe fruit peel and a cool, mineral element on the finish. Tongue lotion! (MS)