Selbach’s block-picked 2008 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese Rotlay offers nearly over-ripe honeydew and musk melon wreathed in Chartreuse-like herbal essences and in heliotrope and lily perfume, the whole underlain with salt and stone. This is transparent in that water color-like sense that every brush mark is there for good, and in just that spirit, as intended, it reflects that diverse state of Riesling bunches across the entire parcel on one early November day. Hints of white raisin and spice point toward the botrytis berries while suggestions of fresh citrus point toward the green-gold, still juicy fruit and leaven the mix. There is a creaminess of texture and soothing side to this that make it hard to spit, though the brightness and levity that characterize some of the best wines in this collection are less in evidence here. I would anticipate 20 or more years of fascination from it. Johannes Selbach responded to the high energy and acidity of the 2008 vintage by giving most of the wines extra fine-lees contact and later-than-usual bottling. As a champion of (in his words) “genuine Kabinett” and “drinking wine, not trophy wine” and a resister against the encroachment of high must weights and residual sugar to which the weather in most recent vintages has left even him susceptible, Selbach was predictably overjoyed both with the refreshment, delicacy, and infectious drinkability made possible by vintage 2008, and with its preponderance of Kabinett and Spatlese. Several single-parcel, block-picked (i.e. the whole crop at once), vineyard-designated wines were essayed (that from the Anrecht – within Zeltinger Himmelreich – being new this year) although at Spatlese rather than, as usually in the past, Auslese Pradikat level. In fact, it remains Selbach’s intention to very soon remove the already small-print reference to Pradikat from these special bottlings, whose focus is intended to be entirely on reflecting terroir and vintage. (Ironically, though, the reference to the sites themselves remain in very small print, because the authorities are testy about the use of geographical designations other than those of the official Einzellagen singled-out – or, to put it more appropriately, assembled – in 1971.)There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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