Dark bright yellow. Ripe aromas of peach and nectarine, plus scents of medicinal herbs and wet stone. Then conveys a sweet, full impression in the mouth, where firm underlying chamomile and botanical herb nuances give shape to the fruit-driven flavors. The finish is long and clean, featuring a persistent note of chamomile. This wine fermented for a year but still wasn’t able to digest all of its sugar and so clocks in at 14 g/L (the highest residual sugar of any 2015 Riesling from Zind Humbrecht). The grapes grow on Oligocene marl that is believed to be more suited for red wine production than for white. It’s a much deeper soil than that found in many of Zind-Humbrecht’s holdings, with deep stones, and that tends to contribute to much larger, horizontal wines with noteworthy residual sweetness. This wine tastes off-dry thanks to a very low ph of 3; actually, with a pH that low, it requires that amount of residual sugar, or it would risk tasting lean and hard. It also needs 10 or 15 years in the cellar to really reach optimal drinking form, though you don’t need to wait that long to have a good time with this. In my experience, this wine tends to develop notes of petrol and diesel fuel faster than other Zind-Humbrecht Rieslings, so those of you who do not appreciate that nuance might want to drink this up on the earlier side – say, within eight years from the vintage.
Ian D'Agata, April 2018