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93 VM.
"This bottling from in part centenarian vines manages to convey both greater richness and even greater clarity than the many other fine wines in the Selbachs’ present collection. Alluring scents of iris and heliotrope and a greenhouse-like suggestion of verdant foliage follow as inner-mouth perfume on a creamy, expansive yet (at not quite 12% alcohol) buoyant palate brimming with fresh, juicy apple. Cardamom and coriander seed offer counterpoint, leading into a lusciously lingering finish mouthwateringly salt-tinged and transparent to crystalline stony nuances. According to Johannes Selbach, any qualitative heterogeneity in 2016 can be laid at the door of the hot, dry late summer and attendant vine stress. He noted that some ostensibly “lesser” sites fared better than “top” locations due to greater water retention. But in fact, although its high points do not measure up to those of the estate’s 2015 lineup, I found qualitative consistency to be one of this 2016 collection’s most notable virtues. Considering that some of his vineyards endured hail and peronospora before being hit with that heat wave, its amazing that the estate’s overall crop was close to normal. (The temperature in Zeltingen reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit on one September day, and others weren’t far below.) Picking began on October 3 and, with the exception of an Eiswein and a BA, was completed in just over a month. “The accumulation of must weights was very gradual,” noted Johannes’ son Sebastian, while the wines display delightfully developed aromatics and considerable richness. As explained in my introductions and tasting notes covering previous Selbach-Oster collections, three block-picked – as opposed to selectively harvested – Auslesen have in recent years become the estate flagships. But Johannes Selbach reports that not only those three wines but all of his 2016 vintage Auslesen, with the exception of the "one-star" Zeltinger Schlossberg, represent one-time harvests of every satisfactory cluster that hung in their respective parcels. (For an extended account of this estate’s recent history, its top sites, and the evolution of its viticultural and cellar methodology, consult the introductions to my accounts of their vintage 2014 and vintage 2015 collections.)" David Schildknecht, Vinous.com, Jul 2017 |