As is typical for the Pralat super-Auslese that he auctions, Loosen’s 2008 Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese gold capsule essentially originates with the upper, entirely botrytized half of each of the best clusters in the site. Pungent brown spices, sultana, candied tangerine rind, sassafras candy, and quince in the nose presage a lavishly rich palate that is nonetheless shot through with efficacious acidity and finishes with kaleidoscopically interactive diversity. The overall marriage of extravagance and invigoration here is remarkable, but as Bernard Schug points out, the shriveled berries in question had enormously concentrated what were already high levels of acidity. Bottles of this elixir should serve as their own 40 or more year battery packs. (I have not tasted this amazing Riesling since it was bottled.)Ernst Loosen insists he aims to observe an upper limit of 12.5% alcohol for his trocken bottlings, a level that one might have expected was easily achievable in 2008; but in fact, a portion of this vintage’s collection comes close to transgressing it. When it comes to residually sweet Kabinett – a genre in which Loosen has long excelled – his frequently-voiced concerns that “the real thing” was becoming almost impossible (or at least, impossibly expensive) to achieve nowadays certainly do not apply to the 2008 vintage, when his collection of Kabinetts is not only superb, but also lively and feather-light. Indeed, the whole 2008 Loosen Oeuvre – while consisting of fewer wines than usual, with its nobly sweet selections even more (and more spectacularly) focused than usual on Pralat – is superb. What’s more, even cellarmaster Bernard Schug voiced his amazement at just how little sweetness most of the residually sweet wines display.Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255