Peter Lauer Grande Reserve 1984 – Disgorged Nov 2023

This is likely the 100th post about this wine since last year, but hey, it's a special wine – one of the few 1984s you can find on the market, which is considered to be at least "okay".
Bought as a present for a 40th birthday last year, we finally had the chance to sit down and drink it.
For the ones who don't know, 1984 it's been quite the horrible vintage in Europe. Still, Peter Lauer, a fine producer from Ayl, close to the Saar river, decided to go for the craziest experiment: let's take this Riesling, make it sparkling, and let it sit on the lees for as long as we can.
And yeah, in my case, "as long as we can" was 39 years.
The bottle opened with a nice pop, which came as a complete surprise to me. The bubbles were very fine, made some foam, and then disappeared quickly.
The color was a very beautiful deep gold/amber, with a little haze, but not much.
On the nose the wine was quite the rollercoaster: at first I got strong oxidative notes one would associate to sherry. Then I could smell some sweeter tones, and it suddenly felt like I was smelling port. Then – after a few minutes in the glass – I started to perceive distinct balsamic notes, similar to what you would have from an Italian herbal amaro.
But then I tasted it and… It was something completely different? Never have I ever tasted such a distinct difference between smell and taste in my life. Almost no trace of primary aromas, apart from the herbaceousness I was getting from the nose, then a bit of petrol, plenty of nuts and dried fruit, not sweet at all, and still a Medium-High refreshing acidity.
We had it with crisps and tarallini, and we finished the bottle fairly quickly.
I tend to disagree with other reviews I've read: maybe I was lucky and got a golden bottle, but this was not "just an experience", it was actually a very enjoyable – yet "different" wine!

I'll probably drive over to Ayl and get another bottle before they are gone for good (together with some of their 1G and GG Riesling, which are amazing and a great bang for the buck!)

Cheers!