Weingut Carl Loewen Thornicher Ritsch Riesling Auslese, Mosel, Germany

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：1942

The Loewen 2006 Thornicher Ritsch Riesling Auslese – from a nowadays obscure “Grand Cru” whose fruit this year ripened and botrytized past the point of bottling any “normal” wine – smells of fig, yellow plum, and honey. Juicy and refined, with fresh pit fruit dominating over honey, yet creamy in texture and tinged with black tea and exotic, heady, musky inner-mouth florality that spell “over-ripe,” this wafts weightlessly into a subtly sweet finish of almost erotic exoticism. Here is yet another opportunity to get turned on to (and by) terra incognita of the Middle Mosel. Based on the historical track record for nobly sweet wines from this site, we might well have here a 20-30 year wine. (But give the key to someone else if you expect it to last that long!) The Mosel’s greatest champion of once-great but recently-neglected sites and one of German viticulture’s most tireless outside-the-box thinkers in the search for quality, Karl-Josef Loewen took extra efforts in 2006 including adding supplemental pickers who helped him harvest in only ten days. He did not begin until October 8, believing that “before then, the ripeness just wasn’t there.” Loewen is notoriously fearless when it comes to harvesting botrytis, but he tended toward more whole-cluster pressing than usual to help guard against impure elements of rot. In an exciting development, beginning this year, Loewen is taking the lead with Carl Schmitt-Wagner in farming the latter’s ancient Riesling in Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300