The 2006 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Auslese Reiler – from an iron-rich parcel just above the shoreline, in this instance picked the day after the Portz – delivers a more compressed, plum paste, caramel, and white raisin concentration. A subtle salinity adds interest and invigoration, but this is not nearly as expressive as the Portz. (Vollenweider assures me that in the months right after bottling, the roles were reversed, and this was the more engaging of the two.) Ultimately, this, too, will be best enjoyed between ages 12-25. “We started picking immediately after the October 3rd rain, and then under high pressure,” relates Daniel Vollenweider. Already then, there was little to be harvested below Auslese, not surprising considering the general trends this vintage and the fact that Vollenweider, as a friend to botryits in normal times, never sprays to keep it at bay. But in a departure from the norm, one cask had reached ten grams of residual sugar by the end of last summer and Vollenweider decided he might as well taste what a truly dry Wolfer Goldgrube Spatlese would be like! (I have not connected with the bottled wine.) A second major vineyard reclamation project in the Schimbock – a once-renowed riverside parcel within today’s Trabener Wurzgarten – is where Vollenweider intends to specialize in dry Riesling.Importer: Vineyard Research, Inc., Lunenburg, MA tel. 617 686 8052; Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312; also A Bill Mayer Age of Riesling Selection Imported by Valley View Wine Sales, Glen Ellen, CA; tel. (510) 549-2444