Every year at about this time my phone begins to ring – or more likely these days, my inbox begins to ping – with requests for suggestions for Thanksgiving wine, the tone rising in urgency the closer we get to Turkey Day.

So this week and next Nick’s Wine of the Week will recommend two bottles that will do full justice to the festive bird. This week’s is a luxury white, next a more modestly priced red.

German wines — and by that one can usually assume rieslings as they constitute 60% of production — do not enjoy much of a reputation in America these days, nor even much recognition. But while this is both unfair to, and unfortunate for these diligent producers, it provides a tremendous opportunity for the adventurous wine fan because they represent extremely good value.

I describe this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine of the Week – the Zilliken Riesling Spatlese, Saarburger Rausch 1992 ($40) as a luxury wine though given its extreme age, it is far from expensive. If it was made from the more fashionable C grape, and came from Burgundy, it would cost three times as much.

Slate gives German riesling its unique personality.

But this is underrated German riesling so the quality/price equation is tilted most decidedly in the consumer’s favor.

But forget equations. The wine is so decadently and intensely concentrated, so packed with ripe summer fruit flavors, one might almost take it for a sweet wine…..until, that is, one gets to the dry, citrusy, aromatic and impossibly long-lived finish. The haunting echoes of those initial impressions of lush fruits, sweet/tart pineapple, licorice, peaches, pears and lavender-infused Provence honey linger in the mouth, and memory, long after the last drop of the liquid has disappeared.

The floral qualities of May flowers on the front palate are wrapped in a oily, spice-tinged envelope of complexity on the finish making it the perfect foil for the rich and gamy meat of the holiday bird. No one will fail to be impressed.

+++++

On a practical note, that vintage number, 1992, is not a mistake – it’s a testament to both the longevity of great riesling and how under-valued these wines are. And yes, it’s still available – a quick search of wine-searcher.com reveals five US retailers offering the wine, and that’s far from an exhaustive sampling. This is a connoisseur’s wine, and definitely worth tracking down as it will provide a memorable holiday experience.

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