The 2007 Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Beerenauslese (destined for auction) displays an unusual nose suggesting freshly baked bread, black tea, sea breeze, sweat, and musk, along with pungent citrus zest and pit fruit distillates. White raisin, marzipan, candied lemon rind, and caramelized yellow plum encamp on the palate, offering less ambiguous testimony to over-ripeness and noble rot, but the fascinating mineral and animal elements continue to add intrigue through a long, finish. In keeping with the stylistic course set by the Jost’s Hahn gold capsule Auslese, this is virtually free of superficial sweetness, texturally firm, and higher in alcohol than one nowadays normally expects from nobly sweet German Riesling of its Pradikat level. But there is no lack of transparency to nuance, and primary juiciness and sap on display here promising a 30 or more year life span. The 2007 vintage was immensely satisfying for the Josts, combining as it did high must weights (but less so than in most recent vintages); ripe acid-retention; ample precipitation (for a flagship site so notoriously dry that it is among the very few in Germany to have been approved decades ago for drip lines); perfect botrytis; and a bumper crop (after several straight years of penury). All of that noted, I was still marginally disappointed by this year’s dry wines. I cannot help but wonder whether the Hahn simply promotes too much sugar in its Riesling grapes for ideal balance at legal Trockenheit. Peter Jost continues to follow a distinctive approach to nobly sweet success – honed only over the past several years – of rigorously removing and discarding in September any botrytis that might not later at harvest be distinguishable from fresh botrytis, and of favoring lower residual sugar and correspondingly higher alcohol in the finished wines than is nowadays fashionable.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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