THE GERMANS WEREN"T GOOD AT WINNING WORLD WARS BUT THEY SURE CAN MAKE RIESLING.

Having old wine friends to visit provides a good opportunity to dig deep in the wine cellar and find some treasures. Geoff spent Easter with us and amongst other goodies we tried I took out my last bottle of 1976 Sichel Estate Piesporter Goldtropfchen Beerenauslese. This Mosel Riesling from a good year was now 33 and a half years old when opened. Knowing how well these top German wines age I had good expectations for it even though I had kept the wine for longer than I normally would. As a result we were more than pleasantly surprised. The wine had coloured up a great deal having a deep, apricot/copper colour but was still bright and shiny. It had a rich sweet marmalade and apricot nose that carried through to the taste.  The whiff of varnish didn't detract. The finish was fresh and long with no burnt or caramelised flavours. This was an example of what makes wine collecting worthwhile. The accentuated tastes and complex aromas in the wine could only come from long (and graceful) ageing in one's own cellar so the provenance is known. Some people think that this is a bit of a wank but it is no different than a musician's appreciation of a fine instrument or an antique collectors appreciation of a quality piece of furniture.. These things make life interesting. The price tag was still on the bottle - $19.50 (pre GST days) which I bought in early 1978. At that price it was expensive then, not much less than First Growth Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundy which can now cost many hundreds per bottle.