The 2018 Sankt Nikolaus Riesling trocken GG is remarkably fine on the highly elegant and even charming nose that reveals pencil notes of cedar wood and very distinctive, elegant and slightly flinty fruit with a dash of lemon. The attack on the palate is smooth but refined and utterly elegant, with a seamless texture and a pure, finely mineral and salty-crystalline finish. The Nikolaus is less deep, dramatic and tensioned perhaps than the Doosberg, but this might be a momentary occurrence. Bottled at the end of March, tasted in April 2020. To be released in September this year.

Like its vintage 2017 predecessor, this was bottled in late summer of the year following harvest and only released after a year in bottle. Toasted nuts and a hint of char, along with lemon zest and piquantly seed-inflected Bosc pear, reflect the combination of ripeness and slight cask influence that are confirmed on a polished but (for this vintage) relatively firm palate. The formidably persistent finish adds stony and alkaline nuances. I can well imagine this improving as the influence of wood, relatively mild though it is, further recedes.

Maybe it’s my imagination, but the St Nikolaus seems a little gentler than Peter Jakob Kühn’s other Grosse Gewächse. Fruit is certainly dished out in generous and juicy measures, from the local peach and nectarine to the more exotic with passion fruit and a dash of grapefruit. On the finish sprinklings of dusty minerality and ginger spice add a tactile tickle. (MS)