2016 Maximin Grunhaus Abtsberg Riesling Spatlese, Mosel, Germany

The white peach, pear and white currant on display here offered a jellied impression of ripeness, sweetness and concentration such as I would have anticipated from an Auslese. The nose is effusive and the palate luscious, creamy and glycerol-rich yet delicate and shot through with enlivening fresh lime. As with a number of Grünhaus 2016s, there is an appealingly cooling aspect to this wine’s green herbal accents, while peach kernel and walnut offer piquant counterpoint to the wine’s overt sweetness and luscious fruitiness. In a surprising role reversal, this Abtsberg delivers the sort of vividly tactile sense of smoky and crystalline stony mineral impingement and vibrant sense of dynamic flavor interplay that I typically associate with Herrenberg. (There is no separate auction lot of Abtsberg Spätlese from vintage 2016.)

93 ponts David Schildknecht vinous.com

The wine proves superbly elegant and inviting on the nose with cassis, herbs, pear and fresh fruits. The wine is gorgeously zesty on the palate and leaves a grandiose feel of herbs in the long and herb-infused finish. This is a plain beauty cut along the traditionally zesty, cassis-infused and minty lines of great Maximin Grünhaus wines. 2026-2041

Another stunning wine that combines power and elegance in a stunning way. The sweetness is there, but the more important thing is the mineral freshness that is really complex. Now or whenever you feel like until mid-century.

94 points James Suckling