2007 Andreas Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spatlese Medium Dry (cork): Pale straw colour. Sweet and spicy but not over the top, apples dusted in mixed spices, Johnson & Johnson's baby powder, then liquered pears. Despite the “medium dry" tag the palate's still sweet with about 20g RS, very fruity with juicyfruit gum, yeasty pale ale/apple characters and creamy lemon meringue pie on the finish, the crunchy acidity keeping it well balanced. Perfect now with a Thai green curry with plenty of lemongrass, but its stiff backbone of acid should serve it well in the cellar for 5-10 years.
Cheers,
Ian
TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spatlese Medium Dry
TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spatlese Medium Dry
Last edited by n4sir on Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Forget about goodness and mercy, they're gone.
Re: TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spätlese Medium Dry
I've got similar notes on this wine Ian, it has the ripeness of Spatlese alright, and thought it might have a touch of botrytis in it.
I'm puzzled by this comment though, this is a long way from sweet, I thought it was a fairly classic Feinherb. (For context I think the international sweetness scale many are adopting is completely unhelpful).
Cheers
Andrew
n4sir wrote:2007 Andreas Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese Medium Dry (cork): Despite the “medium dry†tag the palate’s still sweet with about 20g RS,
I'm puzzled by this comment though, this is a long way from sweet, I thought it was a fairly classic Feinherb. (For context I think the international sweetness scale many are adopting is completely unhelpful).
Cheers
Andrew
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Re: TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spätlese Medium Dry
20g is too dry for me! 
Yes, so picked at spatlese level and fermented to off-dry/feinherb level. The magic formula for these is about 3g of r/s to 1g of acidity. The Germans are trying to be more understandable with their labels these days. They are actually not putting kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken on front labels any more. They will say trocken or dry on the front (or feinherb/medium-dry as the case may be) and then state the level of grapes on the back label. Plus some of them are going for brand names.
Anyway, glad you liked it. Good little producer, doing everything under stelvin lux now, even half bottles of eiswein!
Yes, so picked at spatlese level and fermented to off-dry/feinherb level. The magic formula for these is about 3g of r/s to 1g of acidity. The Germans are trying to be more understandable with their labels these days. They are actually not putting kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken on front labels any more. They will say trocken or dry on the front (or feinherb/medium-dry as the case may be) and then state the level of grapes on the back label. Plus some of them are going for brand names.
Anyway, glad you liked it. Good little producer, doing everything under stelvin lux now, even half bottles of eiswein!
NB: I import wine from 100 boutique producers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, NZ and SA. You may think my opinions are biased ;-) As opinions are :-)
Re: TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spätlese Medium Dry
Wizz wrote:I've got similar notes on this wine Ian, it has the ripeness of Spatlese alright, and thought it might have a touch of botrytis in it.n4sir wrote:2007 Andreas Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spatlese Medium Dry (cork): Despite the “medium dry" tag the palate's still sweet with about 20g RS,
I'm puzzled by this comment though, this is a long way from sweet, I thought it was a fairly classic Feinherb. (For context I think the international sweetness scale many are adopting is completely unhelpful).
Cheers
Andrew
The comment came to mind when a friend who tried it before me had said "it's not that dry, it's still sweet", and in a local context I thought it was sweeter than what we make here as an "off-dry" style. That's probably not right, but as a newbie to German rieslings the combination of Spatlese & Medium Dry is a little confusing.
Cheers,
Ian
Last edited by n4sir on Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Forget about goodness and mercy, they're gone.
Re: TN: 2007 Schmitges Erdener Treppchen Spätlese Medium Dry
It could be ripeness making it taste sweet I've seen a couple of 20 to 30g/l Rizzas from NZ that taste sweeter than their sugar levels as well. Then there are wines like the Grossett off dry (15g I tihnk?) where you have to look for the sugar beyond the little lift it gives the wine.
Its all about balance, and in the case of Riesling, acid/sugar/flavour balance...
And I'll support Nevilles comments on Schmitges. he doesnt have the premier sites that some of his colleagues do, but he's an innovator, and from time to time will produce absolute knockout wines. His 09 Dessert wines are something else...
Its all about balance, and in the case of Riesling, acid/sugar/flavour balance...
And I'll support Nevilles comments on Schmitges. he doesnt have the premier sites that some of his colleagues do, but he's an innovator, and from time to time will produce absolute knockout wines. His 09 Dessert wines are something else...