"In a way, apricot perhaps?"

[djewesbury]

Hello from Geisenheim, in the heart of the Rheingau! AW77 and I have had a very successful week touring here and the Mosel - Fritz Haag, Dr Loosen, Robert Weil, Kloster Eberbach, Künstler, Schloss Johannisberg, Georg Breuer and introducing Philip Kettern*, plus all those other ones I can't remember right now. Our current abode reminds me of nothing so much as the Overlook Hotel in The Shining and I think André has gone missing before dinner. Have to get my tricycle out and go and find him.

Stay tuned for the full field report, with unbelievable details of cranky Valkyries horrified at the idea of corkage and hübsch Rheinmädchens offering us to drink of their incredible, incredibly rare, incredibly expensive Trockenbeerenauslesen, an unction poured from golden chalices to revive jaded warriors! And around 80 TNs (as soon as I've finished the São João report from June of course…)

*A very interesting young man and Siegfried to Dirk Niepoort's Wotan!

[LGTrotter]

I am sniggering about all those Christopher Isherwood short stories, 'a very interesting young man' indeed!

[djewesbury]

I am sniggering about all those Christopher Isherwood short stories, 'a very interesting young man' indeed!

I do not know anyone called Otto, if that is what you are insinuating.

[LGTrotter]

I am sniggering about all those Christopher Isherwood short stories, 'a very interesting young man' indeed!

I do not know anyone called Otto, if that is what you are insinuating.

Hole in one, no wait, I didn't mean, that is to say...

[djewesbury]

Anyway...

[DRT]

Award-winningly hilarious post removed by DRT at the request of the OP.

[AW77]

The Mosel & Rheingau trip was really fun and also educational. Daniel is a good travelling companion. He took more comprehensive tasting notes than I did (I just noted some keywords, mostly to the effect if I would buy the wine or not). It was also good to have a non-German companion with me: we were given a warmer welcome because of this. Some examples might illustrate this: when I phoned Wegeler to make an appointment I asked them if we could also taste the Doctor GG Riesling (which is 40 € a bottle). I was told only if a bottle would be open anyway. When we were there, they opened a bottle just like that and also rolled out some aged Spätlese wines. At Robert Weil Daniel was actually poured double the amount I was given (which was still generous).
The Mosel is quite a narrow, steep and rural valley, whereas the Rheingau is quite broad, less steep and almost urban in comparison. In the Rheingau there is also a better choice of restaurants (in the Mosel good restaurants are quite sparse). I think I prefered the Rheingau to the Mosel.
Besides the dry wines, we also tasted quite a lot of sweet Rieslings. I have never before tasted so many and must admit that a sweet Riesling really goes well with desserts. I think I like my Auslese to be young and with a lot of acidty, but prefer my Spätlese to be older (around 15 Years) and don't mind lower acidity there. Of course, after dessert I would go for the Port.
I found it also interesting that a young Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) smells like PX-Sherry.
I think I like "feinherb" (off-dry) wines more than the bone-dry "trocken" wines, provided the bit more of resiudal sugar is balanced by a good acidity.