The Josts’ 2007 Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spatlese displays the most vivid aromas of watermelon I can ever recall in a Riesling, accented by a hint of fresh lemon. Unusually soft and ingratiating in texture for a young 2007, it caresses yet at the same time refreshes the palate, leaving behind subtle but stubborn alkaline and saline notes then delightfully compliment the wine’s luscious generosity of melon. I love the T.R.-like restraint shown by this Riesling that walks softly, but has extract and energy in reserve for at least 15 years of fascinating and delicious evolution.
The 2007 vintage was immensely satisfying for the Josts, combining as it did high must weights (but less so than in most recent vintages); ripe acid-retention; ample precipitation (for a flagship site so notoriously dry that it is among the very few in Germany to have been approved decades ago for drip lines); perfect botrytis; and a bumper crop (after several straight years of penury). All of that noted, I was still marginally disappointed by this year’s dry wines. I cannot help but wonder whether the Hahn simply promotes too much sugar in its Riesling grapes for ideal balance at legal Trockenheit. Peter Jost continues to follow a distinctive approach to nobly sweet success – honed only over the past several years – of rigorously removing and discarding in September any botrytis that might not later at harvest be distinguishable from fresh botrytis, and of favoring lower residual sugar and correspondingly higher alcohol in the finished wines than is nowadays fashionable.
Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300