2014 Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Großes Gewächs- Germany, Nahe (5/13/2017)
To be fair, I liked this more than JR did. But neither of us liked it enough to finish the bottle. The yeasty smell was overpowering. JR said it was like unwrapping a fresh cake of yeast and burying your nose in it. i found it less so than he did, and less on the palate than the nose. There was definitely a fine wine going on as well - huge and complex, with great persistence and an enormously long finish, tons of citrus, nice minerality. It was just sadly dominated by this element that smelled mostly like yeast and somewhat like the liquid that tinned hot dogs sit in . We put a stopper in and will revisit tomorrow. I’ve never had a SF GG so young before, so maybe this is part of the usual evolution, and reflects that “sponti” thing that people talk about? Or perhaps even the short drive from the store where we picked is up to our place was enough to shock it? All I know is it didn’t smell or taste very good tonight, even after a good amount of air. I’m certainly not ready to dismiss it and hope it will improve, as I have several more.
Addition for Day 2: Bottle was stoppered and in the fridge overnight, then warmed up a bit to around cellar temp. Stopper came out with a decided “pop” so there was some gas build-up for sure. On the nose, not much of an improvement. Still yeasty and unpleasant. In the mouth it was better, with fruit coming a out and showing some texture and depth. Sadly, though, it was still just not fun or interesting to drink. Will put the others away for a few years. I’ve loved all the other vintages I’ve had of this wine, so hoping it’s just in a bad place.
We had a GG tasting last fall where both the S-F wines underperformed severely. Kupfergrube 12 and Halenberg 12. They were off in a bad way, and not a storage or cork issue. Yeasty, bacterial, reductive and unbalanced.
Realizing this is not the same wine, I have drunk several bottles of the 2014 SF Estate stricken which have been crystalline and lovely. I have a few bottles of various GG vintages and hope this was an (semi)isolated incident.
Just opened a 2014 S-F Felseneck from 375 mL, and I too got a cured meat/bacon fat note (which sounds like what you’re describing with the hot dog water Sarah) mixed with tons of smoke and slate mineral tones, but not as expressive in fruit profile. Mostly some quince and red apple skin on the nose, not really getting any tropical or citrus notes. I’ll save the rest for tomorrow to see what happens.
I’ve had it twice since my original note in 2017 and it was much better - once in 2019 and once in 2020. Never mind blowing for me, but a very good wine and nothing like the weird and unpleasant first bottle.