April 7, 2017 | News | Issue Highlights | Mature Riesling

Weingut von Schubert - Maximin Grünhaus | Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Kabinett 1997 | Label

1997er von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Kabinett

Our extensive 1997 retrospective yielded many superb wines, among which a spectacularly vibrant and complete Kabinett by Maximin Grünhaus.

1997 Retrospective | Textbook Riesling Classicism

1997 Riesling Vintage Retrospective | Mosel Fine WInes | Picture | Bild

Mature Riesling is one of the great pleasures of the wine world. This is why, every year, we dedicate the Spring Issue of Mosel Fine Wines to this topic in a bid to have our readers try it for themselves.

In the just released Mosel Fine Wines Issue No 34 (Apr 2017), we reviewed over 90 wines from the 1997 vintage, a mature vintage which proves pretty much the dream of any Mosel wine lover coming through.

Among this embarrassment of the riches, the Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Kabinett by von Schubert proved one of the great highlights.

Weingut von Schubert | Grandness from the Ruwer

Weingut von Schubert produced a remarkable set of wines in the 1990s. It delivered not one but often several of the vintage highlights in all our annual "20-Years After Retrospectives" which we held over the last years. Two years ago, its sublime 1995er Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Auslese proved an "Issue Highlight."

Weingut von Schubert - Maximin Grünhaus | Tasting Room | 1997 Riesling Tasting | Picture | Bild

Earlier this year, we had the chance to re-taste much of the Estate’s 1997 collection and the results were equally impressive. Besides truly remarkable fruity and sweet wines (including the Abtsberg Kabinett featured in this article), the Estate crafted an amazing set of fresh and elegant dry Riesling.

Weingut von Schubert | 1997er Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Kabinett

The Maximin Grünhaus Estate is blessed with tending one large vineyard hill which stretches over almost 1.5 km (1 mile). You may be forgiven for thinking that this hill is pretty homogeneous. It is not. The front-middle part (the Abtsberg - highlighted in blue on the picture) has a different soil, as Carl von Schubert points out: “In this sector, the slate is blue rather than red. This differentiation between the blue and the red terroir becomes really sharp and precise as one goes up the hill.”

Weingut von Schubert - Maximin Grünhaus | Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg | Grosse Lage | Grand Cru | Picture | Bild

This bluer element makes for the distinctive signature of wines from the Abtsberg. It adds an elegantly focused and spicy side to the wines when they mature. This distinctive note came roaring through in the Estate’s 1997er Abtsberg Kabinett.

This wine has a touch more body than usual for a Kabinett of the period: 1997 proved a rather ripe vintage and yields were low in the Ruwer. The result is simply spectacular. This is one of the finest elegantly light Mosel Riesling ever made.

There are few Estates whose wines age as beautifully well as those from von Schubert – Maximin Grünhaus. If you do not have a mature bottle at hand, leave a few bottles of the recent releases to enjoy at maturity. You will not regret it.

More mature Ruwer by Maximin Grünhaus was reviewed in Mosel Fine Wines Issue No 34 (Apr 2017).
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Tasting Note | Extract from Mosel Fine Wines Issue No 34 (Apr 2017)

1997er

von Schubert

Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Kabinett

03 98

95

This beautiful wine delivers a gorgeous nose of cassis, grapefruit cream, spices and herbs. It proves utterly elegant and incredibly youthful as intense and creamy Spätlese-like fruit emerges on the palate. The finish is to die for with layers upon layers of succulently fresh and gorgeous fruit packed in white minerals. This is pure magic in the bottle. Now-2037

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