On Aug 14, 3:01 pm, "Bill S." wrote:
>
> 1978 Joseph Phelps Selected Late Harvest Johannisberg Riesling – allow
> me to blow the horn of a wine I had brought – this was really amazing
> stuff! Like many of this sort of wine (mostly not made any more) this
> was very high residual sugar – in this case, as high as I can ever
> recall, at 30% and was harvested at 48%! It still managed to come in
> at 10% alcohol. Like quite a few (including the old 1970s Ch. St.
> Jean TBAs) this wine was dark brown and people would laugh at you if
> you offered it to them as a white wine. For whatever reason, the
> California wines of this style seem to darken much sooner than do
> German TBAs. It was raisiny in the nose, unctuous and mouth filling
> and had amazing acidity, so avoided the cloying effect of some. A bit
> surprisingly, it still showed some petrol varietal notes in the nose,
> something I have rarely seen with TBA style Gewurz even at a younger
> age. I suppose the aromatics that come from the Riesling are more
> persistent and do not break down as quickly. A memorable wine I was
> happy to contribute (and my last bottle!).

I still have 10 half bottles of this wine that were bought shortly
after release and properly stored. Also I have 11 half bottles of a
Ch. St.Jean Bell Terre 1978 that is only slightly less rich at 28%
residual sugar. I bought all that were available at a large store, and
the price was quite reasonable. The store was glad to sell them, as
most of the local wine drinkers of the area did not drink German TBAs
at the time, much less such a sweet California Riesling.

But the richness of these wines pales compared with some top examples
of true Tokaji Eszencia made in modern times. The Royal Tokay 2000 is
extremely rich, but it pales on comparison to the 2000 Eszencia from
the small old Uri Borok estate in Mad, with about 800 g/L of residual
sugar and about 2% alcohol.Only a very tiny amount of this wine was
made and it is extremely difficult to find. I know of a source in the
UK and a source in Germany, both of which will ship to many other
countries. However this wine will cost you over US$ 1000 per 1/2 L
bottle. Such wine will last a long time after opening. A sip of only
about a tablespoon would be very ample. Because the wine has an
extremely high acid content to balance the extreme sweetness, drinking
several ounces of it likely would make many people ill. Special
crystal tasting spoons were used for such rich wine in the past, and
Royal Tokay includes one with their Eszencia.