1990 Basserman-Jordan Deidesheimer Kieselberg Riesling Beerenauslese

BY IAN D’AGATA | FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Bassermann-Jordan has long been one of my favorite German wine estates. I simply never tire of their wines. Ever since my first visit there now many years ago when I tasted not just great Rieslings but also a unique, unforgettable and rare Scheurebe Auslese that winemaker Uli Mell told me had been forgotten somewhere in the estate’s large underground cellars (apparently the winery had only grown Riesling until 1996), I have always searched out the estate’s wines. With 300 years of experience and counting, the Basserman-Jordan family helped lay the foundations of the first German wine law and established what later became the Association of German Quality Wine Estates (VDP). The estate owns vineyards in Forst, Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg (49 hectares in 20 individual vineyards) some of which are among the greatest plots of vineyard land of all of Germany. The Kieselberg is a 15.5-hectare, rather flat site located at roughly 150-160 meters above sea level near the pretty town of Deidesheim in the Pfalz. The soils are mainly gravelly, coarse sand/sandstone and loamy. It’s a heat retentive site and one that naturally yields ripe Grosses Gewächs (first growth) wines. 

The 1990 Basserman-Jordan Deidesheimer Kieselberg Riesling Beerenauslese is a magnificent sweet wine that started out life extremely backward (I first had this about twelve years ago: it was unyielding and shut down tight) while today it has blossomed and opened up, offering aromas and flavors of honeyed tropical fruits, crystallized peach, cinnamon, minerals and marmelady spicy botrytis. The finish is long and multilayered. 93/Drinking window: 2017-2030.