2018 Maximin-Grunhauser Abtsberg Riesling Auslese 87
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Tasting notes
The penetratingly high-toned nose delivers green herbal essences at distilled strength but with no outright volatility, accompanied by yeasty, bread-like notes that I associate with ennoblement. White peach and quince jellies, almond paste and herbal liqueur figure on a silken, glossy palate. As with the corresponding “Nr. 89,” the prodigious finish here is not at all excessively sweet. What’s more, there is a sheer juiciness allied to tangy invigoration that sets up entirely productive tension with the wine’s richness and hint of confection. Here’s another ageworthy Grünhaus Auslese that gives too much pleasure for me to consider suggesting one ought to wait before opening a bottle.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
This fuder 87 has a richer, sweeter fruit content than the more defined and muscular 89 bottling. Thereâs ethereal depth to the palate with ultra ripe peach and mango flavors, bathed in very juicy acidity. Thereâs fluidity here that transcends the high level of sweetness. So balanced. Drink over two decades.
The 2018 Maximin Grünhaus Abtsberg Riesling Auslese Nr. 87 offers an intense, excitingly aromatic and complex bouquet with lemon and stone fruit aromas intermingled with notes of flinty, crunchy slate, crushed stones and dried herbs. Sweet and lush yet piquant and vital on the palate, with kicking acidity and lingering mineral tension, this is a mouthwatering and firmly structured Auslese of great class and style. It's one of the rare Auslesen in 2018 that needs to be cellared, whereas so many already taste wonderful now. This needs to be aged to soften its racy-piquant acidity. Bottled with 7.5% alcohol, 137 grams of residual sugar and an analytically rather moderate level of 7.5 total acidity. Tasted from AP 29 19 in June 2019.