2015 Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Ste Catherine l'Inedit Domaine Weinbach

The 2015 Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste Catherine L'Inédit! is a special selection from late harvested grapes from old vines in the very center of the Schlossberg. Made for the first time in 1998 and with a good portion of overripe and botrytis grapes, it always was on the border between medium-dry and medium-sweet, but far away from a Vendange Tardive style. Picked on September 28, the 2015 contains only a small portion of botrytis. It opens with a super clear and ripe, but also fresh and flinty flavored Riesling bouquet that displays ripe raisin, but also refreshing lemon and coolish stony/flinty flavors. Full-bodied, rich and piquant on the palate, this is a concentrated but highly elegant, finessed and seductive, silky textured and perfectly balanced Inédit (literally: unique, the one and only); it has fine tannins and a very, very long, lush and amazingly delicate, but highly complex finish. Great ageing potential!

Bright golden-tinged yellow. Lemongrass, lemon verbena and lavender complicate lovely aromas and flavors of white stone fruit and a hint of crystallized mango. This showcases marvelous sugar-acid balance on the long finish. The first vintage of the Inedit was the 1999 (the 1998 was called the Cuvé de Centenaire); made from super-ripe grapes, this wine's style falls in between a late harvest and a dry Riesling. And though it almost always tastes much more like a late-harvest wine, it manages the neat trick of being very rich and light on its feet at the same time. Fairly sweet on the aftertaste.