Ansgar Clusserath Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spatlese, Mosel, Germany

安斯加爾克魯斯拉斯特里登海梅爾雷司令晚收葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：3795

Fresh and precise, this white is a bit intense for the vintage, showing vanilla custard, apple tart and cardamom flavors. Harmonious and supple in texture, gliding to a long, refreshing finish. Drink now through 2031. 350 cases made, 40 cases imported.??–AZ??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add

Issuing exclusively from old, ungrafted vines (whereas most of the vineyards in Apotheke, including those of Clusserath that informed the corresponding feinherb bottling, were recently replanted as part of a Flurbereinigung, certain parcels on the perimeter of the Einzellage – here high up against the woods – were allowed to remain untouched), Eva Clusserath’s 2011 Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spatlese displays a winsome combination of clarity, juiciness, and textural refinement. “I kept this modest in residual sugar,” remarked its author, though what does that then tell us about today’s fashion in German Riesling sweetness, considering she is thereby referring to 60 grams?! Lime, grapefruit, and fresh apple gush across the palate, not to mention – metaphorically speaking – over a bed of stone, and in the finish a combination of apple skin, salt, nut oils, and honey delivers compelling persistence and salivary gland stimulation. Like this wine’s hint of honey, its textural schmaltz points toward the inclusion of lightly-shriveled, botrytis-tinged berries. Look for at least 15-20 years of succulent satisfaction. 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

Originating with the same old vines as the corresponding trocken, Clusserath’s 2009 Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spatlese marries the variegated succulence of grapefruit, lime, apple, white peach, and Persian melon with a correspondingly diverse if ineffably nuanced array of sensations for which only “M”-words can convey even an approximate sense. Subtly creamy in texture; lightly honey-glazed; almost weightlessly delicate; and finishing with salivary gland-tugging if not sheer jaw-dropping length, this ought to superb Spatlese is virtually sure to dazzle for the next 20 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

Eva Clusserath delighted in her feinherb Spatlese of last year as much as did I, but there just wasn’t a cask this year that fit that profile, so we have “only” one 2008 Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spatlese. Spice peach and pineapple; prickly smoke; and lemon zest, as well as a honeyed overlay, all signify botrytis even in the nose. The fine mineral edge of buoyancy of the corresponding Kabinett are absent here, and in the final analysis – at least for now – there is a bit of superficial sweetness, but this nonetheless displays an impressive combination of relative delicacy with sheer flavor intensity and a long, soothing, subtly spicy finish. Give it a few years for the full implications of its botrytis to be worked out, and plan on its being with following for at least 12-15 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

Vanilla cream and candied lemon aromas and flavors, with a touch of earth, mark this racy white. On the drier side, with a tangy, mouthwatering aftertaste. Best from 2010 through 2028.??–BS??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add