Nikolaihof | Wachau | Vinothek, Riesling trocken | 2000 | 1500ml | bio

Description

Product description for Nikolaihof Vinothek, Riesling trocken 2000 (bio)

Bottled in 2016 – Late Release 2024. Christoph Raffelt: If one could call a Wachau Riesling classic, then this 2002 Vinothek is it. After 16 years in the bottle, this Riesling from Mauthern seems as virile and full of life as a youth of the same age who has spent most of his life between the sports field and the grand piano in the music room. The wine is filled with great vibrancy and excitement. From the first creamy yet firmly structured sip, it expands across the palate into a long finish. A fine, unifying acidity is always present, as is a phenolic note that lends the wine great seriousness, as well as a range of earthy, stony, and spicy notes that range toward licorice and wax, providing plenty of substance. The wine remains juicy and clear with subtle tones of stone and pome fruit. Fruit isn’t the main focus here. Structure and texture characterize this wine; transparency and clarity prevail, where all too often the emphasis is on lush fruit. Despite its 16 years, one gets the feeling that this wine is just beginning, not in the prime of its life—even though it’s already a tremendous pleasure to participate in its development.

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Keywords: Nikolaihof Vinothek, Riesling trocken 2000 bio Wachau Austria

Wine Advocate

Score: 93

Bottled after almost 16 years on the lees (bottling was in June 2016), the 2000 Riesling Vinothek from the Nikolaihof is neither based on power nor on richness but reveals a subtle and filigreed character with a good and complex finish. The wine opens with a clear, deep, intense yet pure and fresh nose where botrytis flavors intermix with earthy/leafy as well as spicy/herbal flavors. Sourced in the Vom Stein vineyard in Mautern (Wachau), this is a highly finessed, vital and eternally youthful Riesling with grip, tension and a long, complex finish. This is a deliciously textured Riesling that develops with time in the glass. It is easy to underrate but a delicacy for those who can read between the lines.
The same wine from a bottle that was opened several days before showed an intense and mineral nose that led to a ripe, rich and intense palate with very fine tannins, grip and minerals and an aromatic finish with lingering tension and salinity. The 2000 seems still young and is stunningly pure and finessed given this warm vintage that produced so many heavy, opulent wines that are far over the top today. This Vinothek is a very rare exception. Bottled with 12.5% alcohol. Tasted three times between March and July 2017.
Stephan Reinhardt

Vinous

Score: 97

Here is another Nikolaihof offering that I was given a rare opportunity to taste prior to bottling. But perhaps the Saahs family will rethink their generosity with sneak previews, given that I now feel compelled to publish a substantially updated tasting note to reflect the significantly more impressive showing delivered by this wine a year after its late summer 2016 bottling. As before, the nose is head-turningly complex, offering black tea and Latakia tobacco smokiness, coriander-seed pungency, high-toned pistachio extract, intimations of red currant, lime and white peach and a remarkable array of mineral and animal intimations: sea breeze, sweat, wet stone, oyster liquor and mussel stock. What I earlier described as a “silken and expansive yet buoyant palate” has taken on an almost custardy richness. Yet the accompanying juicy brightness of fruit – now including a tang of fresh ripe tomato – has by no means diminished in animation, intensity or sheer refreshment. The vibrant finish tugs at one’s salivary glands with suggestions of urchin roe and shellfish stock while delivering a kaleidoscope of herbal, mineral and fruity diversity.
— David Schildknecht
Drinking window: 2018 – 2026
Review date: Dec 2018

Producer website: https://www.nikolaihof.at/en/home/