2016 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Diabas Riesling

This was the next wine presented, essentially the halbtrocken (off-dry) version of the GG wine. Every year, I love the subtle difference that just a few grams of residual sugar makes in adding charm and a seamlessness of texture relative to the trocken GG. At 11% alcohol, and 17 grams r/s, this is a magical filigree delight of the Rausch, with the off-dry character and interplay of fruit/acid/mineral found only in German Riesling. Plain awesome. I believe that I am consistently the only person in America that works with this wine. How I do love diversity and the details……!!! :0 A little * awarded here, at once playful and profound class in a glass.

Fwiw, Diabas (pronounced Dia-bas, with the stress on the second syllable) is the name of the hard volcanic rock found throughout the brown/blue slate of the Rausch vineyard. It is distinct from Basalt stone in that it is formed in a slower, cooler fashion, pushing up through the earth’s crust, cooling as it slowly makes its way, as opposed to Basalt being formed by hotter lava flowing directly from a surface caldera (à la the Pechstein vineyard in Forst).