The Weil 2007 Kiedricher Turmberg Riesling trocken smells strikingly of violets, bacon fat, and yellow plum. Silken in texture, glycerin-rich, and expansive yet full of enlivening acidity and not at all heavy, this stains the palate with invigorating tart fruit skin and zest, smoked meat, chalk, and salt. I suspect that this concentrated and well-balanced dry Riesling will remain fascinating for 8-10 years at least.
Wilhelm Weil has doubled his press capacity after the 2006 experience, and in light of what he sees as an inevitable long-term truncation of the time available to harvest, given ever-earlier picking dates. But be that theory as it may, 2007 offered a full six weeks for the main harvest alone (nine weeks, if one counts “pre-harvest” thinning and Eiswein). The results – predictably, given the track record at this spare-no-expenses estate – were impressive from Q.b.A. to T.B.A., and included a generally better-balanced array of dry wines than 2006 had permitted. Since there are 22,000 and 27,000 bottles each of the two top dry Rieslings here, by the way, it’s not as though they are rare, even though many Grosses Gewachs bottlings – including from large, famous wineries – are produced in tiny amounts.
Imported by Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596 9463; beginning in fall, 2009, imported by Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255