Dr. Burklin-Wolf Wachenheimer Rechbachel Riesling Beerenauslese, Pfalz, Germany

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A dusty pungency on the nose of the 2007 Wachenheimer Rechbachel Riesling Beerenauslese spells botrytis in a more obvious way than is the case with this year’s other nobly sweet Burklin-Wolf bottlings. Dried apricot and honey mingle on the palate with alkaline, saline mineral notes unexpected in a Beerenauslese, and the combination of chewy fruit skin and intense citrus in the finish is stunning, if not entirely winsome. I’d suggest there’s not point in even revisiting this for more than a decade, and it should live for more than a quarter century. The biodynamic Burklin-Wolf team, headed by owner Bettina Burklin and cellar master Fritz Knorr continues to excel, and few if any German estates have so successfully fulfilled or cashed in on the ideals that so many of them shared, of focusing on dry wine and on terroir distinctions. The fulfillment lies in consistently well-balanced legally trocken wines and dramatically distinctive single-site bottlings (with an internal ranking of quality rather than use of Pradikat terms or designations as “Grosses Gewachs”). As for cashing in, the prices the top crus here have been able to maintain speak for themselves, although the high quality of Burklin-Wolf’s entire line renders many of these wines excellent values. (I missed out on this year’s Altenburg or Langenmorgen, incidentally, because not a single bottle could be found left behind at the winery last September.) The range of wines readily available in the U.S. is expected to expand as part of a new import and marketing arrangement. Outbreaks of botrytis in certain sites already in late September caused some alarm, but with startling rapidity it dried into nobility so that the estate ended up with a clutch of extraordinary sweet wines featuring almost freakishly high acidity, all of them picked before any others of this year’s Rieslings.Christopher Cannan Europvin Selections (various importers), Bordeaux; fax 001-33-5 57-87-43-22

Dried apricot and citrus flavors are concentrated, but also dominated by a searing acidity, pulling the wine out of balance. May come around with time, but seems like it will always be sharp. Best from 2012 through 2035. 360 cases made.??–BS??Region: Germany / Pfalz Select to Add