Kuhling-Gillot’s 2009 Niersteiner Olberg Riesling Grosses Gewachs (this winery now spells the site name with an Umlaut rather than “oe”) displays a surprisingly deep golden color for such a youthful wine, which somehow seems appropriate to its smoky, fusil aromatics, oily texture, and bitter shadings of peach kernel and citrus rind. A faintly musky aura such as one often encounters from this site adds interest. This certainly sticks to the gums, impinging not only piquantly but with a welcome sense of vibratory invigoration. I would want to keep careful tabs on it beyond the next 4-5 years lest the bitter and fusil elements here magnify. Like her husband Oliver Spanier (of Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier), Carolin Gillot – for more about whose estate see in particular my reports in issues 185 and 187 – seems disinclined to tolerates residual sugar in her wines. Whether or not it is for that reason that they elected not to bottle the 28 gram residual sugar successor to the superb Kuhling-Gillot 2008 Gewurztraminer feinherb, I do wish I’d had chance to satisfy my curiosity by sampling that wine from cask. (I missed out also on sampling this year’s Kuhling-Gillot Pinot Gris from bottle.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799
