The 2018 Cuvée Victor is pure and deep yet bright and delicate and also flinty on the elegant nose that displays bright fruit aromas. On the palate, this is a rich and textured yet refined and elegant blend of Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc that reveals the crystalline acidity and finesse of the Nahe, which makes this a pretty unique wine. 13.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in August 2022.

The 2016 Cuvée Victor is the assemblage of the finest barrels of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Pure, bright and fresh on the noble, yeasty-scented and iodine nose, this is a lush and refined, intense and juicy, terroir-driven white with a tight but filigreed mineral structure and very finessed finish. This is superb, stimulatingly salty and with very fine tannins. The grape-variety character is completely reduced here in favor of the terroir expression. This is truly a Burgundian wine of great class. Tasted in July 2019.

Toasty notes in the nose of the Diel 2010 Cuvee Victor (a blend of Pinot Gris and minority Pinot Blanc, this year raised principally in a large cask, plus one barrique) rather surprisingly suggest peanuts. As the bulk of this didn’t go through malo, it isn’t surprising to note a green apple flavor which, when reinforced by lemon, lends invigoration but also a slightly awkward juxtaposition with lanolin and lactose in its finish. That said, this is certainly an interesting as well as admirably persistent wine that I could imagine might reward several years’ aging. (I have only tasted a couple of older Cuvee Victor bottlings, and while I was not especially impressed, these were wines whose inclusion of Chardonnay and upbringing entirely in barrique set them apart from the regimen the estate has more recently – and in the present instance – followed.) While her famous father Armin naturally continues as a trusted advisor, it is evident in conversation as well from continued adjustments in methodology that Caroline Diel is settling into her role as hands-on manager of this great estate, clearly positioning it as one of those lucky enough to receive the special benefits and blessings that can accrue to felicitous multi-generational collaboration. Selective double-salt de-acidification was performed here in 2010 – occasionally even in lots destined for residually sweet wines – and skin contact encouraged. Alcohol levels for this year’s Grosse Gewachse are in the moderate, 12.5-13% range.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

Incorporating the contents of one new (1,200 liter) Stuckfass of Pinot Blanc and one second-year Stuckfass of Pinot Gris, the Diel 2009 Cuvee Victor departs from the long-standing tradition of this wine’s being matured in barrique. It offers scents and flavors of wheat germ, apple, peach, lemon, and an intriguing, maritime-like sense of salinity and alkalinity. I would still like to experience more primary juiciness here, but the mineral extension is quite invigorating and sets up a tasty counterpoint with the wine’s richness, nor is there any of the overt woodiness or heat (even though we’re at 14% alcohol) that I have so often detected in renditions of this prestigious cuvee. Caroline Diel’s 2009 collection is noteworthy not only for a range of outstanding Riesling such as has long been anticipated (though seldom bettered) at this estate, but also for a set of wines from the Pinot family – all, incidentally, now labeled with French rather than German names for their varieties – that in my estimation mark a significant up-tick in quality. That this estate has been famous in Germany for its work with Pinots ever since Armin Diel assumed charge in 1987 and began barrique vinification, I am of course well aware. But only in recent years have I witnessed tendencies to restrain the influence of new wood and to encourage real subtlety, which seem to me prerequisites for achieving with these varieties anything remotely approaching the class of Schlossgut Diel’s Rieslings. The 2009 Pinots were harvested in mid-October and most of the Rieslings in the two weeks following. The superb botrytis selections were all picked-out ahead of even the Pinots.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

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