Direct Wines 0-1
Well, I finally cracked open a bottle of wine from the Four Seasons wine club. (Proceed directly to my original post about Direct Wines.) I decided on the 2004 Julius Clauss Niersteiner Spiegelberg, which comes in a funky cobalt blue bottle. This riesling comes from the Rheinhessen region of Germany and is meant to be drink now. According to the liner notes, Hugh Johnson apparently called it “Perfect Wine”.
Well, I’m here to tell you it’s horrible. Oh, my God! I poured a little into my wine glass, swirled it around, took a whiff, and immediately thought, “This doesn’t quite smell right.” The cork looked perfectly clean, and the wine looked exactly the way it should: a light straw color. While it definitely had the scent of a regular riesling, there was also something malodorous and funky about it (and not in a good way like the design of the bottle).
Then, I dared to take my first sip. It tasted like a liquefied dirty sock on my tongue, which only became worse with the aftertaste. After a few more seconds, I started to think I was going to vomit. I dumped my glass and vowed not to drink any more of it. Then, I gargled with water. Believe me. It is awful.
Admittedly, I don’t have a very well trained palate. I can rarely agree with other people when they point out subtle peach flavors with hints of God-knows-what. However, in this case, I can easily tell you that it’s an overwhelming nasty flavor.
Unfortunately, I have two bottles. This one’s about to go down the drain. The other will likely end up as a gift (insert evil laugh).
However, I’m hoping that this bottle was an exception. After all, it’s not unheard of to have one bad bottle in a case. Regardless, this is not boding well for my first online wine club experience. I’ll report on the other wines soon as I open more bottles.
By the way, in Hugh Johnson’s defense, he appears to be referring to the 2003 vintage. The liner notes still refer to the 2003 Niersteiner Spiegelberg Muller-Thurgau Kabinett Julius Class. These editorial mistakes should probably be indicative of the quality of the product. (I hope I caught all my typos!)
June 28th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
I just opened a 2005 bottle lasy evening and it was very enjoyable
February 3rd, 2007 at 9:40 am
Have you had good success with the other wines
February 14th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I have 2003 its an Excellent wine
February 21st, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I love this wine, and stumbled upon this website trying to find more of it!! This is a wonderful fresh crisp tasting wine!!
March 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Hi there i have a bottle of the 2003 Rheinheissen and was wondering if it a sweeter wine or if it had a more bland flavor… just curious
March 1st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
you must have had a bad bottle because i bought i case i 2005 and it was fine
June 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I have been looking for some more of it where did you order it from
because it is so hard to find and drink my last bottle i need another case
September 16th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I tried this wine - nice easy drinking, quite pleasant palate – mind that I prefer big heavy reds myself. And girls absolutely love it.
Frankly, it is quite stupid to write a review on the wine making your decision on what is obviously a bad bottle – like that never happened with anybody. It is a bad bottle, not a bad wine.
Got to love internet – any amateur can pretend to be an expert haha