2005 Riesling, Cuvée Frédéric Emile, F.E. Trimbach

You can smell the ripeness oozing from the glass of this racy Riesling. On the palate it is rich, weighty, complex and mouthwateringly dry, before an elegant and seriously long finish. The only problem is deciding when to drink it. You will love it now, although if you leave it for 5 to 10 years, you will happily swap a vital organ for just a glass! Delicious.
(Simon Staples, Berrys' Fine Wine Director)

The 2005 Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile follows the lead of the “reserve” bottling in offering palpable extract yet elegance and refinement. Peach, apricot, apricot kernel, lime, and pungent floral notes in the nose lead to a juicy mouthful of citrus and pit fruit with further invigoration added by accents of salt, huckleberry and toasted pumpkin seeds. Blazingly bright in its citricity and palate-staining in its fruit, nut, and mineral intensity, this displays an amazing tiny-berry concentration and utmost clarity when one considers its having been rained on early in October – tribute to an impeccable viticultural regime as well as the breezy location (on the Osterberg) of these vines. It won’t be released until 2010, by which time it can be expected to have “shut down” and re-opened, as well as – I hasten to add – to promise further richness and complexity over the following 12-15 years. Chalk dust, sea breeze and lime in the nose of their 2004 Riesling Reserve set the rather austere tone for this densely-concentrated wine. A hint of muskiness signals an exotic aspect that runs right though a minerally-intense finish that really shows the wines ripe but ultra-bright acidity. This (like some of the other 2004s) appears to already be in the process of shutting down a bit, leading me to wonder whether it might hit the market while in a vinous trough.
(The Wine Advocate)