The Loosen 2009 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese Gold Capsule – an auction cuvee – displays more efficacious acidity and focus than its “regular” counterpart (or for that matter the corresponding “regular” Auslese). It also exhibits a gorgeous bouquet of buddleia, rose, peony, strawberry and peach, which elements transform a creamily-textured yet brightly juicy as well as seemingly weightless palate into a pool of liquid perfume and fruit preserves. This renders the proverbial peacocks tail in its prodigiously persistent finish … and this peacock can fly! Expect at least three decades of show. The old vines that informed this were afflicted with severe millerandage, says estate manager Berhard Schug, but not more than 10% with botrytis. “I want real Kabinetts,” says Ernst Loosen by way of explaining his early start on the 2009 harvest, “between 80 and 83 Oechsle, with crisp acidity, freshness, and the like; and you can’t wait around, especially when you have five, maybe seven days of Kabinett-picking to do and every day ripeness is rising. This year, we wanted to delineate even more sharply the difference between Kabinett and Spatlese, as well as a distinct difference between Spatlese and Auslese.” In practical terms, this meant among other things slightly reducing the levels of residual sugar in the Kabinetts (Loosen says that trend will continue incrementally); and reserving botrytis fruit solely for wines labeled “Auslese.” Eiswein from Lay, Treppchen, and Sonnenuhr; Eiswein and T.B.A. from Pralat; as well as a T.B.A. from Wurzgarten were all – according to cellarmaster Bernhard Schug – in various states of fermentation or preparation for bottling when I visited in September, so consequently I shall review those wines (or at least some subset thereof) at such time as I report on the 2010 vintage.Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255

Based largely on tiny, golden, millerandanged and botrytis-tinged berries, the Loosen 2008 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese Gold Capsule is suffused with honey, nougat, and malt, alongside strawberry preserves and hints of white raisin. Incredibly light yet creamy and palate-saturating, this brings nuances of green tea, brown spices, salt, and slate into its ravishing finish, with its richness and ennoblement balanced by an only modest sense of sheer sweetness. It should be worth following for 25 years. 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