Riesling Baumpresse Im Weingebirge 2012 75cl

A fabulously ripe yet delicate apricot nose, then enormous concentration and great balance on the palate with an extremely streamlined, super-long finish. This was pressed with a huge, 350-year-old wooden press, and that doesn't strike me as a gimmick, but rather it has helped the wine to reach this extraordinary harmony. Drink or hold.

Pressed with the 350-year-old wooden press and aged for 18 months in traditional oak, the intensely citrus-colored 2012 Im Weingebirge Riesling Baumpresse opens with a beautiful nose of deep, elegant and finessed Riesling flavors intermixed with marjoram aromas. What great finesse, elegance and purity! On the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich but pure and elegant, highly finessed and salty Riesling with great complexity, tension and finesse. It has a firm but still filigreed structure and very fine tannins that are intertwined with the perfect fruit ripeness and concentration. A great dry Riesling from the Wachau!<br/>As always when you are at the Nikolaihof, you don't just taste a wide range of wines and styles but also many different vintages of which the youngest (2016) is still rare. Nikolaus Saahs, who has run the biodynamic domaine since 2005, proceeds in marketing wines when they are ready to drink, so at the moment, this includes vintages between 2016 and 2000. In fact, the current stock of the Nikolaihof in Mautern (Wachau) is large enough to compensate for two crop failures in a row. However, even though the first half of 2017 was extremely warm and dry (with just 100 to 120 milliliters of rain during the vegetation period), crop shortfalls are not expected. 2016 brought excellent quantities and great qualities although we still have to be patient to discover the talents of this vintage that didn't bring any hail or frost to the Wachau except for the Spitzer Graben. Saah's first release of the 2016 Vom Stein Riesling Federspiel is already very promising and reflects the talents of 2016: well defined fruit, purity, finesse and complexity. The 2012 Im Weingebirge Riesling Baumpresse, which was pressed with a giant wooden press, is the highlight of the portfolio, followed by the 2013 Steiner Hund Riesling and the Riesling Vinothek from the legendary 2000 vintage.