From tank, the enormously viscous Fritz Haag 2011 Braunebeger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese superficially – which isn’t to say without giving enormous pleasure – evinces apple jelly and apricot preserves. As with the corresponding B.A., there is, moreover, a concentration of myriad floral and herbal essences for which an allusion to Chartreuse can scarcely do justice. Nougat, marzipan, and myriad honeys as well as juicy citrus add further layers to the rich, interactive narrative here, yet for all of its confectionary leanings, this T.B.A. displays uncanny, almost weightless levity allied to electric vibrancy, ringing my palate like a tuning fork. Riesling can’t get much more spine-tingling than this, nor, I suspect, harbor any greater aging potential. (There is also a Juffer T.B.A. but although it was the lighter of these two in must weight, it was still fermenting when I visited the estate last September.) “We started picking at the beginning of October,” relates Oliver Haag “because must weights were already high for Kabinett, but there was good acidity.” Haag pressed whole clusters rather than either crushing or permitting skin contact for his dry wines, and tended to favor a higher percentage of stainless steel for vinification and elevage because, as he puts it, “the material was all so ripe that I was worried it would come off as too opulent and voluminous.” Without question, he thereby puts his finger on a legitimate concern, and his own wines illustrate the truth that higher alcoholic volume and opulence – no matter what appears on the Riesling’s label – aren’t necessarily virtues, and in particular not in the context of this vintage. “To convey a sense of levity this year,” notes Haag, “was not so easy. Not that there was much botrytis out there,” he adds, though fortunately that fact did not deter him from rendering several spectacular ennobled wines in small volumes. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463