I promised to write a bit more in detail about some of the wines we tried on our trip to Germany. I want to start with the 2011 Meierer Kestener Riesling Kabinett and the 2011 Meierer Kestener Paulinsberg Riesling Spätlese. I wrote about the tasting experience at the winery in general here.
Bottle (photo courtesy of http://www.weingut-meierer.de)
The 2011 Kabinett was harvested from several lots in Kesten and the crushed together. The grapes used are those that are fully ripe but still low on sugar with a maximum of noble rot of 10%. The wine has 9% ABV with 7.5 grams of acidity/liter and 47 grams of residual sugar/liter. You can tell from these numbers that this is a typical German riesling on the sweet side. The key indicator for a sweeter wine is the lower alcohol content. As sugar is turned into alcohol by the yeast, a lower alcohol content necessarily means more residual sugar in the wine. It was vinified in stainless steel.
In the nose, I got sugary notes, with licorice and gummibear aroma. It smelled like fun! The palate was fruity with a healthy acidity. Unfortunately the finish was rather short. At $6.50 at the winery, this wine is a steal and a perfect summer treat.
Th 2011 Spätlese was harvested when the grapes were fully ripe and had some noble rot on them. The winery website says 10-20%. The wine has 8% ABV with 7.5 grams of acidity/liter and 74 grams of residual sugar/liter of wine.
On the nose, this wine had licorice (again!) and strawberry notes. The palate was really awesome. The wine initially tasted of herbs and peaches but a bit into the tasting more and more tropical fruit aromas showed up. I can only describe those as one of the ubiquitous multivitamin juices. I love that. The finish was nicely long. Another very solid wine.
European readers can order the wines directly from the winery here.
the winegetter 
[…] very convincing, notably the Kestener Paulinsberg Spätlese (more about that and the Kabinett in a seperate post). The nose on the Kestener Paulinshofberg Auslese was clear and structured, before strawberry, […]
I look back at my recent trip to Germany and regret that we didn’t do much wine tasting. Our travels included mostly beer.
Shame on you!! :) Depending on where you went that made sense.
We were in Munich for Starkbierfest and then up to Bamberg so it made sense. We drank more wine in Austria.
Well, in Bamberg you could have tried some Franconian wine (something I have not had often, or maybe even ever…not sure), but I agree. It made much more sense to drink beer in those regions. And Austria is a very interesting wine country, so I guess you had a number of great experiences there!