Ansgar Clusserath Steinreich Riesling Qba Trocken, Mosel, Germany

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The Ansgar Clusserath 2011 Riesling trocken Steinreich – originating, as usual, from Trittenheimer Apotheke and Dhroner Hofberger but in older, better situated parcels than the corresponding “Vom Schiefer” bottling (with which it shares 11.5% alcohol) – reinforces the zesty and yeasty pungency it shares with that latter wine by way of a smoky, stone-dusty aura. Luscious fresh apple and nectarine laced with nut oils and tinged with salt and apple pip harmoniously inhabit a schmaltzy yet persistently refreshing palate. This ought to remain delightful for 3-5 years. 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

The Ansgar-Clusserath 2010 Riesling trocken Steinreich – originating, as usual, from Trittenheimer Apotheke and Dhroner Hofberger, as does much of the estate’s “Vom Schiefer” bottling – exhibits a fascinating aroma suggesting sea breeze and oyster shells (though perhaps also a hint of the more conventionally “mineral” wet stone) along with apple and time. If anything this is even a bit sparer and tarter than its ostensibly lesser sibling, but the aforementioned fascination persists all the way through an undeniably protracted and refreshing finish. This might well flesh-out a bit in the next couple of years, but I would tentatively plan on drinking it within 3-4. Eva Clusserath was among the many to experience a commercially depressing 2010 vintage. “We went as many as three or four times into the same vineyard to optimize ripeness,” she reports, and in the face of all that expensive labor, volumes were down by close to half. Clusserath double-salt de-acidified the must for her basic dry wine, but otherwise says she waited as long as she could to harvest (beginning only near the end of October) and arrived at total acidity in her other musts of around ten grams, extremely moderate by vintage standards (not to mention lower than Clusserath’s husband Philipp Wittmann registered in Rheinhessen!). And as usual at this address, a day or more of skin contact was permitted for the dry wines; and all of the wines stayed on their fine lees until bottling, which ranged from late May though July. Together with losses during fermentation and to tartrate precipitation, these factors resulted in wines whose finished acid levels would not even raise an eyebrow on the Mosel, something one can claim for very few 2010s. Yet ironically, despite that analytical fact, these wines are recognizably of their vintage in terms of their relatively sharp corners and in the best instances productive tension, vivacity and invigoration.Importer: Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799

While Clusserath’s bone dry “Vom Schiefer” bottling was slightly austere and simple, her 2009 Riesling trocken Steinreich – hailing from Trittenheimer Apotheke and Dhroner Hofberger – is more intriguing and satisfyingly sappy. Raw pumpkin or winter squash, fresh apple, and faintly smoky crushed stone notes in the nose lead to a juicy palate performance undergirded by palpable extract and with a satisfying sense of lift and refreshment. Despite late harvest, the wine finished – as had last year’s more focused version – at a modest 11.5% alcohol. I would plan to enjoy it over the next 2-3 years. Eva Clusserath – for more about the recent and significant evolution of whose family estate consult in particular my report in issue 187 – adjudged the quality of her 2009 grapes “super” and did not pick the last of them until mid-November. No bottling took place until June, but several wines had only recently or not even finished fermenting by then and so were bottled at the end of the summer. (Unfortunately, Eva Clusserath forgot to bring a bottle of this year’s Auslese – picked out from various parcels in the Apotheke – to our tasting in Rheinhessen chez Clusserath & Wittmann; and as one thing led to another in the course of an extremely tight schedule, I was subsequently unable to connect-up with a bottle.)Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

Most of Clusserath’s 2008 Riesling trocken Steinreich thus comes from her parcels in Dhron and Piesport. Grapefruit, lemon, apple, and brown spices inform both the nose and a glossy-textured, palpably dense, yet buoyant as well as refreshing palate. Citrus zest notes extend and invigorate the finish without tipping the wine too far into bitterness. This 11.5% alcohol Riesling should remain delightful for at least 4-5 years. Ansgar Clusserath’s acreage has been expanded into Dhron, Piesport, and Muhlheim at the expense of Trittenheim because, as Clusserath wistfully admits, after the communal grubbing-up, restructuring, and near-total clonal replanting of Trittenheim’s steepest slopes (a process collectively known as Flurbereinigung), she could not hope in her lifetime to make more of the sorts of Riesling that come from old, ungrafted, selection massale vines. That said, her new vineyards left her a bit in the lurch this year, inexplicably plateauing in Oechsle in November, whereas her remaining old vines in Trittenheim benefited from a late-inning surge in ripeness.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300