Schloss Lieser 2007 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett

You know the feeling. You wake up at 2am with a desperate desire to suck on a piece of slate. You remember school and how they told you that a stag greedily licks the salt stone being offered to him. The teacher didn't know why the stag loves the salt stone so much. He just does. And he would even come out of his hiding to lick the stone. He desires it, he needs it, desperately. This is how you feel.

I keep a piece of Devonian slate on my bedside table for these occasions but I realize that not everybody might be as well prepared as I am. In which case I recommend you keep a bottle or two of Schloss Lieser's Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett under your bed.

The 2007 Juffer Kabinett from Schloss Lieser's owner and winemaker Thomas Haag has a delightful earthy aroma. Imagine you are riding your bike and you are driving by a meadow. Cows grazing on the fields. Amongst the scent of grass and fruit from the peach trees next to you is that hint of cow's manure. Not overwhelming, just enough to make you smile, inhale deeply and say: Ahhh! Nature! That is the kind of earthiness in this Riesling from Germany's Middle Mosel region.

It's a sweet Kabinett, with high acidity that balances the residual sugar. White peach fruit joins in. But then: as the fruit seems to gradually disappear during a medium(+) length, the minerality of this Riesling runs over the tongue like a piece of fine sandpaper and into the scratched trenches flows honey-sweet peach nectar. We raise the glass again, begging for our tongue to be scratched once more in such a pleasant way. A fine Kabinett! Drink it now or keep it for ten more years. At least.