SELBACH-OSTER’S IMPROBABLE 2024s

It is a curious vintage. For an estate that usually offers a homogenously excellent collection, 2024 has its peaks and valleys. One of those peaks is Himalayan in stature, for this is a fabulous year for the en-blocs.

The vintage strongly favors Zeltingen, and this is true from the GGs through all the various Prädikats and (especially) to the en-blocs, which have never been grander. It’s spottier downstream, and while all the wines are “correct” in their site expressions, some of them are markedly thin, “diaphanous” if you approve, and “scrawny” if you disapprove.

There seems also to be a demarcation line based on harvest time. I say “seems” because I haven’t spoken with the family, and this is because I want my first impressions to be as uninformed (and thus spontaneous) as possible. If context alters them later on, that doesn’t make my first impressions false, only uninformed.

Thus I register two dramatic pivots among these ‘24s. One is geography, with Zeltlingen behaving almost as if it came from a different year entirely. The other is ripeness, and you really see this observing the Olympian jump between Kabinetts and Spätleses.

I tasted them systematically at first, in logical flights. I then sipped them willy-nilly and retasted them randomly. It is 27 wines in all – a lot of work – and as I write I’m in the middle of retasting, always ready to amend my initial sentiments.

Finally, the sweet wines taste drier than they actually are, taste more acidulous than they actually are, and suggest higher dry extract than is often the case. This isn’t unique to Selbach, but appears to be a facet of 2024 Rieslings overall.