Ansgar Clusserath Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Auslese

點擊次數(shù)：1821

Eva Clusserath’s 2011 Dhroner Hofberger Riesling Auslese – from fruit slightly more botrytized than that which informed the corresponding Apotheke (there was just one picking in this small parcel, split between present company and the healthy berries that informed the estate’s Riesling Steinreich) – delivers aromatically intense and sappy evocations of nectarine and peach laced with honey and tinged with salt, peach kernel, and wood smoke that lend invigoration and counterpoint to a lusciously lingering finish. This is a candidate for at least two decades of attention. Eva Clusserath has seldom if ever shown me a more consistently fine collection than from this vintage and it’s too bad that until now only a small representation of her wines – this year bottled in mid-summer – has shown up Stateside. Rather than do a green harvest, Clusserath elected to instead organize a massive “pre-harvest” the third week in September that thinned her vineyards of bunches that had been affected by August hail, but whose results otherwise proved serviceable. Most of her best material, though, was picked close to a month later.Importer: Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799

Representing her first wine from recently acquired ungrated vines of undetermined age, Clusserath’s 2007 Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Auslese displays a nose of orange rind, gardenia, subtly-caramelized, malt, and toasted nuts. This richness of aromatics is confirmed on the palate, with an alluring alternation of creaminess and refreshment as persistently sweet floral perfume and honey-drenched nectarine, pineapple, and orange follow into a memorably long and elegant finish transparent to subtle floral and mineral nuances. Here is one of those wonderful Auslesen that one really wants to drink more than one glass of and knows one will come up blessedly refreshed. Furthermore, it is apt to have something to say over at least a 15-20 year period. Despite the ravages of hail in her Altarchen vineyards, Eva Clusserath triumphed in this vintage.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300

Peach, honey, and vanilla inform the 2006 Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Auslese, a wine boasting a glycerin-rich, creamy palate of seductive charm, only subtly sweet, smoky, and tinged with wet stone.This is an example of botrytis at its most stealthy and refined. There is real buoyancy to the finish, and this should be lovely for 25 years if not longer. Eva Clusserath keeps going from strength to strength, and made a success of 2006 (if one overlooks very small yields). This year, parcels of old vines she has acquired in Piesport and Dhron supplement her portfolio. The bad news is that she did this to compensate for many wonderful old vineyards she lost as part of the just-completed communal restructuring and replanting in Trittenheim. A prohibition is now (at least temporarily) in place against planting ungrafted vines, and there is not enough old plant material available. Even were clonal selections that she could have planted today to reach maturity (and she late middle age!), says Clusserath, they would never approach the quality of what she lost.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300