Schmitges Erdener Pralat Riesling Alte Reben

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Schmitges’ mid-November-harvested 2008 Erdener Pralat Riesling Alte Reben – representing a bottling formerly labeled as “Spatlese feinherb” – reached legal Trockenheit at 12.5% alcohol solely through ambient yeasts, but he points out that a legally trocken wine from his Pralat fruit of 2007 or 2006 would have been alcoholically overloaded, and he will henceforth label this bottling simply “Alte Reben,” the fact that it tastes essentially dry being understood. What Schmitges terms the “tiny, golden, botrytis-free berries” from which this originated are reflected in concentrated grapefruit and its rind with overtones of smoke and of narcissus- and peony-like musky florality, and in considerable stuffing and rather adamant firmness. I can imagine this picking up further complexity but I have my doubts about charm. Still, there is so much material here and the wine spent so long on the lees that it may simply have needed more time to recover from bottling. I would nonetheless plan to drink it over the next 3-4 years. Andreas Schmitges worked with a combination of spontaneous fermentation and judicious yeasting to render his dry wine-dominated 2008 collection, one which struck me as somewhat short-changing the vintage’s inherent virtues. An example of this is his decision to chaptalize his Riesling Grauschiefer up to 13% for the sake of stylistic continuity.Importers include: Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463; Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312; Magellan Wine Imports, Centennial, CO (720) 272-6544