Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese Schmitt 2018 (750ML)

96 WA / 96 JS / 95 VM

The 2018 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese Schmitt is deep, fine and complex on the coolish, refreshing, pure and stony nose with its crunchy slate, coolish herbal and even forest notes that enrich the highly refined and elegant Riesling fruit that was picked around the middle of October. Lush, intense and very complex on the palate, this is an energetic, salty-piquant and tensioned grand cru with lingering piquancy and salinity. Absolutely gorgeous and complex. A great vin de terroir. Tasted at the domain in September 2020. Drink: 2030 - 2070-- Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

A very perfumed riesling, showcasing a plethora of stone fruit, from apricots to nectarines to Chinese plums; besides that, there are bountiful white flowers, such as apple blossom and dried honeysuckle; a hint of floral honey, too. A contrastive palate follows with immense density, but equally impressive depth of acidity. The medium sweetness verges on off-dryness, given the salty, saline character that prevails. Drink now or hold.—James Suckling

Pear nectar, quince jelly and honey mingle with marzipan and nougat on the effusive nose and rich, creamy palate of a bottling that, as always, originates with a single picking of all but manifestly imperfect bunches in the “Schmitt” block, yet on this occasion displays marginally less fresh fruit juiciness than the corresponding “Anrecht” and “Rotlay” bottlings or the “regular” Schlossberg Auslese that is in principle a product of selective picking. But none of this means that this year’s “Schmitt” is unimpressive – on the contrary! A more seamless, polished ennobled Riesling is hard to imagine. And like its two block-picked siblings, this “Schmitt” possesses striking inner-mouth floral perfume, headily evoking lily and gardenia, whose sheer persistence alone is quite sensational. In the end there is a modicum of juiciness, but even more effectively, an invigorating tingle of candied lime zest and crystallized ginger that contributes to the vibrancy of a simultaneously creamily rich and billowingly perfumed finish. This is far from the first instance in recent years when a Selbach-Oster Schlossberg has outshone its Sonnenuhr counterpart. Drink 2019-2050 -- David Schildknecht, Vinous Media