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Weingut Ernst Rußler
Weinsbergtrasse 1
D- 65345 Rauenthal im Rheingau
www.weingut-russler.de
Mr. Rußler sends wine to Britain, and the delivery is extremely cheap, at approx €4.50 for not just one, but TWO cases. I suspect there has been a mistake somewhere; you may have to pay more for delivery. Contact him for details of delivery prices to other countries. He claims to have the largest estate in Rauenthal, and has plans for further expansion. If all his wines are this good, I hope he succeeds. Credit Cards are accepted.
2005 Rauenthaler Gehrn Riesling Spätlese €7.50
Rz 74,5 S 8,4 Alk 9,0% Vol.
Very pale gold. Huge flowery nose rivalling the finest Mosel wines, with a rather light body for a Rheingau wine, again reminiscent of the Mosel, no doubt in part thanks to the reasonable alcohol content of 9% and the good acidity level. Very considerable spiciness as is typical of the best wines of Rauenthal, probably in part due to the spritzig (slightly effervescent) nature of the wine (probably because it was bottled early, a very good indicator for fruit and complexity in my opinion, and likely to eliminate bottle variation). Quite rich and sweet, tasting more like an auslese. In a blind tasting I might just have mistaken this for an Ürziger Würzgarten, high praise indeed coming from me. Very, very, good, and a very reasonable price. If you want the best of both the Mosel and the Rheingau, this is it!
May improve in a few years, but is extremely good young. Strongly recommended.
19/20
2005 Rauenthaler Rothenberg Riesling Eiswein €18.90. The website states 375 ml bottle, whereas the ones that I have are 500 ml bottles. Having checked my credit card statement, I was charged just €300 including delivery for a case of each of these wines. This is extraordinarily good value to say the least.
Rz 157,0 S 7,8 Alk 8,0% Vol.
Very pale gold. Big flowery nose. Very rich with slight spiciness on the palate, however I suspect that there's a small amount of another grape variety in this wine, which is allowed under German law, in this case probably Scheurebe, as it has a rather blackcurranty taste. There may be quite a lot of botrytis in this wine, but if so it certainly isn't showing yet - this wine is still very young.
17/20 Needs at least 5 years, and will last almost indefinitely, probably at least another 20-30 years.