One hell of a lunch tasting.....

[Randy Caparoso]

Okay, Bucko. You probably sensed that at one point I'd rear my ugly head. Re: Petrol in Riesling. Certainly a common charactistic, but one that I've found particularly strongest in places, and vintages, in which acidities are not particularly strong and alcohol levels are relatively high in relation to level of fruit extract. Definitely also pH related characteristic.
But my thesis is this: Bottle age has a lot to do with evolution of petrol qualities, but probably more so with origin and growin conditions.

For instance, I find petrol aromas and flavors far more likely in Rieslings from Napa and/or Sonoma than, say, Monterey, where it's cooler and kinder to Riesling, allowing it to develop a cleaner, gentler fruitiness on a more consistent basis (J. Lohr is a good example). I think this is what Jason was citing.

Petrol is also far more characteristic of Alsace and the neighboring Baden region of Germany than, say, in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. It's a heckuva lot warmer on those particular sides of the Rhine where the alcohol and glycerol levels are high, acidities low, the women wild.

Of course, they say the Mosel is where Riesling is truly Queen of the hill, and who's to argue? Beautiful, pure fruit fragrances mixed with minerality; and if anything, minimal petroleum oil characteristics. But even in the Mosel you can see the pattern. Collectors of 1975 and 1976 vintages -- both considered great drinking in their day -- have marked the differences. '75 was a generous but more classically defined year -- subtly concentrated fruit, with great extract and acid levels. Therefore if you go back to the '75s now (at, say, the Spatlese to BA levels) you'll still have wonderfully floral, honeyed, creamy textured fruit, with just subtle nuances of petrol in spite of the wines' age (last month I had a '75 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Spatlese as well as a '75 Monchhof Erderner Treppchen Auslese with just those qualities).

In '76 -- an exceptionally warm, dry year for the Mosel -- the wines were a lot bigger and more flamboyantly fruity, but lower in acid harmonies. And so today, you probably won't find a '76 that isn't tasting predominantly of petrol, since just about all of that blast of initial fruit has long since blown off (a '76 Weins-Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese that I also tried last month was like that, in spite of its underlying honey and fat, dried apricot flavors).

So if my previous notes are correct, I would surmise that the '95 Spatlesen and Auslesen would be more likely to develop that petrol earlier than the fruitier but more solidly acidic '96s; which is what you can also expect in the fine but rather gentle '97s. The '98s also look very good for very high fruit/perfume, as opposed to petrol, year.

As for Alsatian style Riesling? Heck, you gotta like the Indianapolis 500 atmosphere to truly get into those! Then again, you and your friends probably found plenty enough hot oils in amongst your Chinese banquet to bury those wine qualities.